There are several NH Republican state reps that are promising to vote against a bill that would repeal an unconstitutional law. The law allows private businesses to declare up to 25 feet of the public sidewalk and street as a no-free-speech zone, giving these private businesses control over public property.
Related: Eleven NH Republicans Join Democrats To Protect Unconstitutional Buffer Zone Law
With this many Republican state reps opposed to HB430 along with virtually all the Democrats, we need your help to get HB430 passed.
Four points about HB430 that are important to share with your state reps:
- The US Supreme Court unanimously decided, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that an almost identical law in Massachusetts is unconstitutional. This decision came down just a few weeks after Gov. Maggie Hassan signed the buffer zone into law.
- No buffer zones exist and no buffer zones have ever been demarcated in the almost seven years since the law was passed because abortion businesses know the zones are unconstitutional.
- It is already illegal to block a public sidewalk and there is a federal law, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, specifically against blocking access to abortion facilities.
- If the speech of one group of people is taken away, everyone’s rights to freedom of speech are at serious risk.
Also, let them know that the Feminist Health Center abortion facility used to be located in downtown Portsmouth on a small lot. There was crowding on the sidewalk between those offering help and the facility’s clients. They moved the facility to a house on a large piece of land in Greenland, NH to give themselves needed space and renamed it Lovering Health Center.
In this sign-up page for volunteers for Lovering, they admit that they no longer have a need for escorts because of their spacious property. They don’t need a buffer zone because they have a built-in buffer in their large property.
Why should control over public property be given to an abortion facility because they won’t pay for a big enough property to give themselves the buffer they feel they need?
The NH House is expected to vote on HB430 on Thursday, April 8. Contact your state reps and ask them to vote to pass HB430, the buffer zone repeal bill. Explain to them why the buffer zone law is against our freedom of speech and needs to be repealed ASAP.
Watch this video with more information about why the buffer zone law should be repealed: Stories from Sidewalk Counselors.
