{"id":205625,"date":"2019-07-02T11:41:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T16:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=205625"},"modified":"2019-07-02T15:57:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T20:57:58","slug":"judge-pennsylvania-sidewalk-counselor-abortion-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/judge-pennsylvania-sidewalk-counselor-abortion-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge: Pennsylvania sidewalk counselor can maintain presence outside abortion facility"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

On June 27th, a federal judge ruled in favor of a sidewalk counselor<\/a> in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In April, Allentown Women’s Center<\/a>, an abortion facility committing abortions up to 23 weeks, filed a lawsuit against Mark Bogunovich and two other sidewalk counselors for allegedly “threatening, harassing, and insulting employees” and for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act that prohibits physical obstruction or threat of obstruction of abortion facility entrances. The Morning Call reported<\/a>, “U.S. District Judge Chad F. Kenney denied a request by Allentown Women\u2019s Center to ban him from the street outside the clinic while the court determines if he and another demonstrator have violated a federal law against impeding access to reproductive health care.” In addition, the judge is considering removing Bogunovich from the case altogether, and “did not find Bogunovich\u2019s efforts to briefly contact women in their cars constituted a violation of the Free Access to Clinic Entrances…..” The judge did not address charges against a second individual in the suit.<\/p>\n

Bogunovich, who has prayed and counseled outside of the clinic since 2011, was represented by the Thomas More Society<\/a>. His attorney spoke about the case in an emailed press release:<\/p>\n

The complaint was driven by the Allentown Women\u2019s Center desire to cleanse its entrances of pro-life speech by asking the court to impose a 25-foot buffer zone on each side of the clinic’s entrances. Of\u00a0 course, the effect of that would be to destroy the ability of pro-life counselors to communicate effectively with abortion minded women through passing literature to them and oral counseling and education. The Complaint is a rather brazen attempt to use the FACE Act to abridge First Amendment rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Thomas More Society also noted that this suit isn’t the first from the facility, but is “the latest in a long-running series of legal actions by the abortion center against pro-life advocates….” TMS notes that ‘in 2014, the abortion facility supported discriminatory permit requirements that resulted in a lawsuit over violation of the First Amendment rights of the sidewalk counselors. That resulted in a resolution affirming the rights of pro-lifers to stand on the public right of way at the clinic.”<\/p>\n

The facility likely commits D&E abortions in the second trimester, a brutal procedure you can see in the medically animated video below, narrated by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino:<\/p>\n