Court Strikes Down Florida City’s Law Banning Pro-Life Free Speech

A federal appeals court has overturned a Clearwater, Florida ordinance that pro-life advocates said censored their efforts to counsel women outside an abortion facility, ruling Thursday that the law unconstitutionally burdened free speech on public sidewalks.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, sided with Florida Preborn Rescue and other pro-life sidewalk counselors who challenged the city’s 2023 buffer zone as discriminatory and overly restrictive.

The ruling allows the activists to resume leafleting and one-on-one conversations with patients in the driveway of the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center, a facility that does very early abortions.

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Florida currently has a heartbeat law in place that bans abortions from killing babies starting at 6 weeks when their heartbeat can be detecfed.

“The Ordinance seriously burdens Florida Preborn’s speech … by restricting the sidewalk counselors’ ability to distribute leaflets to patients as they arrive at the clinic,” the majority opinion stated, written by Judges Kevin Newsom and Britt Grant, both appointees of President Donald Trump.

The judges found the buffer zone — which spanned 38 feet on a public sidewalk, including 28 feet over the clinic’s driveway, and barred pedestrians from entering within five feet of the driveway — went further than necessary to prevent traffic obstruction.

“We think it likely that Clearwater’s buffer zone does so,” the opinion continued, noting that existing Florida statutes already prohibit blocking traffic and that the ordinance effectively prevented patients from even approaching counselors to accept materials.

The decision reverses a lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction and orders U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven to pause enforcement of the ordinance while the case proceeds on its merits.

The pro-life advocates are represented by the Thomas More Society, which contended the buffer zone stifled their ability to offer life-affirming alternatives to women entering the facility.

“This bubble zone is clearly discriminatory and meant to stifle pro-life speech,” said Tyler Brooks, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society at the time.

Brooks added that the ordinance was “instituted by the Clearwater city council for the express purpose of limiting the speech and activities of life advocates taking place outside of the deceptively genteel looking Bread and Roses abortion facility.”

The suit alleged the law permitted pro-abortion expressive activity while barring pro-life efforts, creating a content-based restriction forbidden under federal law.

“Federal law unambiguously prohibits content-based restriction of speech and discrimination against the free expression of ideas,” Brooks stated in the complaint.