The city council of Sacramento, California, voted Tuesday to prohibit the use of “sound amplifiers” outside abortion facilities in the city.
The ordinance, which is slated to go into effect in 30 days, bans any kind of loudspeakers outside health care centers, including abortion facilities. According to The Herald-Palladium, violators face a misdemeanor offense and civil penalties of $250 to $25,000 per day.
This latest ordinance follows one enacted last June which defined harassment outside abortion facilities as “anything that alarms or distresses that person, including approaching someone who says they do not want to be approached or they do not want to talk” (emphasis added). The city already had a buffer zone law in place, which prohibits pro-life activity within 100 feet of an abortion facility.
The Sacramento Bee reports that though the city already had strict buffer zone laws, abortion supporters were still upset that pro-life advocates were using loudspeakers to reach women entering abortion facilities, since they were unable to approach many of the women in person. Abortion facility staff claimed to the Bee that “protesters often play baby crying noises on loud speakers, call patients and staff ‘baby killers,’ and stand on scaffolding to they can see over the privacy fencing….”
“Tonight was the second step our city has taken to ensure safe access to reproductive healthcare facilities in our community – now guaranteed in California as a Constitutional right,” Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela posted on Twitter after the ordinance’s passage. “I’m very proud of the city team who has worked tirelessly to get us to this point, particularly our city attorney and code enforcement team who are hoping that our ordinance could be a model for other communities across the state.”
Mayor Darrell Steinberg was also supportive of the ordinance. “In California, women and men have a Constitutional right to privacy and women have a Constitutional right to reproductive choice,” Steinberg said. “And that needs to be upheld. [If] that Constitutional right is to mean something it cannot be inhibited by people trying to prevent people from exercising their Constitutional right.”
Buffer zones and similar tactics to limit the free speech of pro-life advocates are blatant attempts by the abortion industry and its allies to ensure that women believe the lie that their only choice is abortion. Peaceful, prayerful sidewalk counselors are often able to give women options about the help and resources available to them should they choose life. When those helpful voices are silenced, the abortion industry wins.
