Pro-Life Group Asks Supreme Court to Strike Down Illinois City’s Abortion Counseling Restrictions

A pro-life sidewalk counseling organization asked the Supreme Court this week to invalidate a Carbondale, Illinois, law that forbids protests and outreach within a so-called bubble zone outside abortion clinics. The group, Coalition Life, argues that the 2023 law violates sidewalk counselors’ First Amendment right to approach women near abortion facilities to advise them of alternatives to abortion. Similar laws exist in other states such as New Hampshire and Montana. The petition in Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale was docketed by the nation’s highest court on July 18. The local disorderly conduct ordinance being challenged makes it illegal—within 100 feet of a hospital, medical clinic, or health care facility— to come within eight feet of another person with the intention of distributing leaflets, displaying signs, or participating in protest, education, or counseling....