On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up challenges to rulings upholding laws in Chicago, Illinois and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that create buffer zones around abortion facilities. The laws require those who wish to reach abortion-seekers to stand back at a certain distance from the entrance to the facility, making it harder to communicate with those who think abortion is the solution to their situation.
 
One of the two cases the court declined to take up involved an ordinance passed in 2012 by the city council in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that made it illegal to "congregate, patrol, picket or demonstrate" in a zone 20 feet from a health care facility. Anti-abortion activists sued, arguing that the ordinance violated their free-speech rights. The lower courts upheld the ordinance, but ruled it did not apply to "sidewalk counseling," where individuals who oppose abortion offer assistance and information about alternatives to those entering a clinic.
 
The second case involves a Chicago, Illinois, ordinance, which made it illegal for a person who aims to distribute a leaflet, display a sign, or engage in sidewalk counseling to approach within eight feet of someone who is moving toward an abortion business once that person is within 50 feet of the business entrance. The ordinance was modeled after a Colorado statute the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2000. Anti-abortion activists told the high court that Chicago's ordinance violates their free-speech rights and that the court's decision from 2000 should be reconsidered. A trial court previously dismissed the lawsuit and an appeals court upheld that decision. 
 
The Supreme Court's refusal to take up the two legal battles over the abortion restrictions follows its 5-4 ruling Monday striking down a Louisiana law that required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

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U.S. Supreme Court Won't Hear Abortion Clinic 'Buffer Zone' Cases From Chicago, Harrisburg