Officials create a no-protest zone around Planned Parenthood
EVERETT – The city has erected a fence barrier around proposed parenting in North Everett to separate anti-abortion protesters and counter-protesters who want to protect patients and staff from harassment.
Enforced by Everett Police Department officials, city officials said city officials said the “time-and-place restrictions” on weekly meetings on Wednesday and Saturday on Saturday are meant to keep the peace and support First Amendment rights. In this way, a no-protest zone was created around the health clinic and the adjacent alley and sidewalk. These types of restrictions are allowed under federal law and precedent.
Proposed Parenthood is on 32nd Street between Colby and Hoyt Streets. An assistant city attorney and the Everett police captain said events outside of the clinic would become a public safety issue and spur the city to action.
“Basically, we are trying to keep the two groups separate and in a place where other uses of the area have minimal impact,” said Everett assistant prosecutor Ramsey Ramerman.
There have been no arrests or charges, they said, attributing to the protesters ‘and officers’ compliance with the rules. But some bumps and bumps in March caused the city to move the groups away from the clinic’s entrance and split them up.
Earlier, anti-abortion protesters mingled on the sidewalk near the driveway. From there, the anti-abortion crowd could talk about people, often women, who walked in and out of the clinic calling abortion “murder”. In videos posted on YouTube in the past few months, some people urge women not to enter.
Sometimes women answer. In a video dated February 24, a woman with a young child walks up to the crowd and says, “This place gave it to me, so stop it,” before heading off to the clinic. She later comes out, walks past the crowd, and goes over to speak to police officers.
The counter-protesters clink noisemakers, roar a megaphone horn, abuse the opponents of the clinic and shout at them: “Stop the harassment of the clinic”.
“I respect the First Amendment right to protest, even if I disagree,” said Everett’s Olushola Bolonduro, who joined the clinic’s supporters earlier this year. “But I felt like they were harassing people who walk in.”
Everett 40 Days for Life, a group that has opposed abortion at the Everett Clinic since 2007, has an email list of about 300 people, member Ed Mohs said. During spring Lent and from late September to early November, people sign up for one-, two-, and three-hour shifts every day of the week. They usually appear in their greatest numbers on Wednesdays. Some have signs that read, “Abortion Hurts Women,” “Women Don’t Deserve Abortion,” and “Pray To End Abortion,” Mohs said.
“It is calm, prayerful, and peaceful for most of us,” he said. “We’re not usually there to scream. … Sometimes when you want to get someone’s attention, you can’t whisper. “
Other anti-abortion groups also hold meetings there.
Pro-life supporters stand on the corner of Hoyt Avenue and 32nd Street in Everett, across from the Planned Parenthood fencing on Wednesday. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Their regular presence has attracted counter-protesters who act as a human barrier against the anti-abortion crowd.
“We all try to maintain as much courtesy as possible on the sidewalk,” said Janean Desmarais, an Everett-based and regular counter-protester for Planned Parenthood. “Sometimes it’s just not possible. If they weren’t out there, we wouldn’t be out there. ”
Those who oppose the health facility are now doing so from the southwest corner of the nearby intersection.
People supporting patients and staff are on the sidewalk south of the clinic.
A short fence was put up along the sidewalk and alley to mark the restricted area. The driveway and sidewalk are not obstructed by the barrier.
The city has issued location and behavior restrictions based on jurisdiction and has not received a court order, said officer Aaron Snell, a spokesman for the Everett Police Department.
Across the state, a Spokane Supreme Court judge ordered these types of restrictions on anti-abortion protesters across the street from a planned parenting clinic in September, The Spokesman Review reported. This decision was separate from the clinic’s lawsuit filed in June against the Church at Planned Parenthood group and its leaders.
“There is always a delicate balance between First Amendment rights, protecting the First Amendment rights of protesters, and ensuring that patients have access to health care without proper intervention,” said Kim Clark, a senior attorney at Legal Voice the planned parenthood in the EU represented the lawsuit.
Noise ordinances are an example of time and space restrictions, she said.
“If it’s not one person, but 40 people, or it’s a person with an extremely loud megaphone yelling into the building, or if someone is obstructing access to the facility and it’s the only sidewalk you can use, then it is different. Said Clark.
Pro-Choice supporters face Pro-Life supporters on Wednesday in Everett on the corner of Hoyt Avenue and 32nd Street. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Before the restrictions on Wednesday meetings in Everett, a Saturday monthly meeting was a public safety issue for at least a year and a half, said Everett Police Department captain David Fudge. The city also enforced restrictions on location and behavior during this event.
“We determine the time, place, and manner when we have a concern,” said Fudge. “There are people protesting, gathering, praying, doing what they want, and we are not giving time, place, or manner because there are no public safety concerns.”
Everett 40 Days for Life is not associated with the event other than their shared interest in opposing abortion, Mohs said.
The separation of the groups “definitely weakened” the interactions between them, but Mohs said it was not a permanent solution. He also claims the city is wrong in preventing him and others from using the public sidewalk.
Fudge said the various locations still provide “a more than reasonable opportunity for the groups to express their views”.
Desmarais said the city should consider establishing a buffer zone banning demonstrations and protests while the clinic is operating. However, the Supreme Court passed a similar law in Massachusetts in 2014 that allowed buffer areas of 35 feet.
Washington has a law, RCW 9A.50.020, that makes it illegal to disrupt access to or disrupt the normal functioning of a healthcare facility.
“Washington has strong law on the books; It’s really about getting that through, ”she said.
For Bolonduro and other supporters of the clinic, the restrictions are an asset for the time being.
“They are just too far to reach (in the clinic),” he said. “That is exactly what I and others wanted.”
Ben Watanabe: [email protected]; 425-339-3037; Twitter @benwatanabe.
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Everett Police escorted a pro-life supporter to 32nd Street in Everett on Wednesday. Barriers erected along the sidewalk around Planned Parenthood are part of a city-imposed “time, place and behavior” restriction. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Pro-life supporters stand on the corner of Hoyt Avenue and 32nd Street in Everett, across from the Planned Parenthood fencing on Wednesday. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Pro-Choice supporters face Pro-Life supporters on Wednesday in Everett on the corner of Hoyt Avenue and 32nd Street. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)