The Supreme Court decided on Feb. 24 not to hear a case challenging a 25-year-old precedent allowing governments to forbid outreach within a so-called bubble zone outside abortion clinics.
The nation’s highest court did not explain its new, unsigned order that denied the petition in Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the ruling. Justice Samuel Alito indicated he would have granted the petition but did not explain why. Alito did not join Thomas’s dissenting opinion.
The case arose from a now-rescinded Carbondale, Illinois, law that forbade outreach within a so-called bubble zone outside abortion clinics.
The local disorderly conduct ordinance being challenged made it illegal—within 100 feet of a hospital, medical clinic, or health care facility—to come within eight feet of another person with the intention of distributing leaflets, displaying signs, or participating in protest, education, or counseling.
The city enacted the ordinance months after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade (1973), holding there was no right to an abortion under the U.S. Constitution, and returning the regulation of abortion to the states.
The local law came into force in January 2023, but the city repealed it later that year.
In their petition, challengers had also asked the justices to review the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hill v. Colorado (2000) that upheld a Colorado law prohibiting activists opposed to abortion from coming within eight feet of another person inside a 100-foot zone around a health care facility without that person’s consent.
The High Court ruled at that time that activists were still free to express their opinions outside the designated zone.
This recent ruling highlights the ongoing fight over abortion laws in America, with pro-life advocates standing firm in their commitment to protect the unborn.
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