CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2025 / 13:26 pm (CNA).
Pro-life activists in New York state were awarded $1 this month after a court found that a county abortion clinic rule violated their constitutional free speech rights.
The Thomas More Society brought suit in federal district court in 2022 against New York’s Westchester County over its rule forbidding “interference” with abortion access there.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found in favor of pro-life sidewalk counselors Oksana Hulinsky and Regina Molinelli, with District Judge Philip Halpern ruling on Aug. 12 that the county ordinance violated the activists’ free speech and due process rights.
The plaintiffs were only seeking “nominal damages” in the suit, the court noted, leading Halpern to order the $1 award. The county had already repealed the ordinance in question prior to the ruling.
Thomas More Society attorney Christopher Ferrara said in a press release that the ruling sends a “powerful message to municipalities nationwide” that “vague laws targeting pro-life speech will not stand.”
“Westchester County’s pro-life sidewalk counselors seek only to offer compassionate, life-affirming alternatives on public sidewalks — as is their First Amendment right,” he said.
“Westchester’s arrogant overreach tried to silence their voices, but this decision helps reaffirm their constitutional freedom to share the pro-life message.”
The law firm, however, noted that it would appeal an earlier court ruling that upheld parts of the law that forbid so-called “following-and-harassing” behavior.
Rules regarding conduct outside of abortion clinics have become legal flashpoints in the abortion debate around the U.S. and internationally in recent years.
The Supreme Court earlier this year refused to hear a case involving a “buffer zone” around abortion clinics in Carbondale, Illinois. That rule criminalizes approaching within eight feet of another person without his or her consent for purposes of protest, education, or counseling within 100 feet of a health care facility.
In 2023 a Washington state county judge ordered a pro-life group to pay nearly $1 million to Planned Parenthood for gathering and praying outside of one of its abortion clinics.
Earlier this month, a 28-year-old man was found guilty of assaulting two elderly pro-life activists in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Baltimore, though the perpetrator was sentenced to just one year of home detention.
Last year, meanwhile, a national “buffer zone” law went into effect across England and Wales barring protests outside abortion facilities. Officials stipulated that silently praying outside of abortion clinics is “not necessarily” a crime under the new rules.
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When the pregnant woman is confronted by a prayer or plea, does she pray that the pro-lifer be forgiven, since they know not what they do?
The problem with the word “harassment” is that it has come to mean whatever people think it means.
E.g., some women would consider it “harassment”, even sexual harassment, if a man compliments them about their new haircut, whereas other women (like me!) would just smile and say, “Oh, thank you!”–and really mean their thanks!
I do believe that some women are slightly uncomfortable when a man compliments them–they are not always certain if it’s a romantic gesture or really a compliment. But I don’t think most men mean to harass a woman when they compliment them–they’re just trying to be polite.
I do not think a kind compliment is harassment. I think that following me around, screaming at me, any kind of grabbing at me or other physical actions which could result in my falling or being bruised or hurt in some other way, using violent, sexually-suggestive, or threatening language (which could include phrases like, “God will judge you!” or “You’ll burn in hell for this!” or “We’re watching you!” are all forms of harassment. I think many courts would agree with me.