Pedestrians in Clearwater, Florida, have no choice but to break the law or hover in the air over the sidewalk when traveling past the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center, an abortion facility on Highland Avenue.
They can’t walk on the sidewalk or the road in that area during business hours.
In March, the Clearwater City Council altered its Sidewalks, Streets, and Public Places Code, singling out this one business for special treatment by creating a “vehicular safety zone” near Bread and Roses.
For more than a decade, the public sidewalk there has been where pro-life sidewalk counselors stand and urge women bound for an abortion to change their mind. Often, they handed out pamphlets offering life-affirming options through car windows to women driving into the parking lot.
The sidewalk code has curtailed that work.
“The Clearwater City Council recognizes that access to health care facilities for the purpose of obtaining medical treatment is important for residents and visitors to the City,” the ordinance says. “The exercise of a person’s right to protest or counsel against certain medical procedures is a First Amendment activity that must be balanced against another person’s right to obtain medical care and treatment in a manner authorized by Florida law.”
The Clearwater Police Department has been consistently called upon to respond to Bread and Roses to mediate confrontations between activists and women seeking abortions, those individuals and associated groups, according to the ordinance.
By creating a 5-foot buffer zone, the city council believed it preserved the pro-lifers’ ability to make their views known, seen, and heard by those entering and exiting the facility.
No pedestrian or person riding a bicycle or operating any other nonmotorized vehicle shall enter into or cross any portion of the driveway or enter the sidewalk within 5 feet north or south of the concrete driveway, says the code.
This restriction is in effect Monday through Saturday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. The code targets pro-life activists but does not apply to those facilitating abortions.
“This section shall not apply,” the ordinance says, “to police and public safety officers, fire and rescue personnel, or other emergency workers in the course of their official business, or to authorized security personnel employees or agents of the hospital, medical office or clinic engaged in assisting patients and other persons to enter or exit the clinic.”
Sidewalk Is a Public Area
Sidewalk preacher Nicholas Arthur Bosstick of Hernando County, Florida, was arrested for the fourth week in a row on Saturday, Aug. 26, for walking on the sidewalk in front of Bread and Roses abortion facility.
“I don’t feel led to comply with an unconstitutional law,” Bosstick told The Epoch Times. “I have the right to walk on a public sidewalk. I’m an American. This is America. I have the right to walk on a public area and say whatever I want.”
Mr. Bosstick says he usually cries out to women, “Don’t kill your baby. Have mercy on your child.”
And he says the sidewalk is a public area.
“For the police or the city of Clearwater to tell me, ‘No you can’t go on this public sidewalk, this public easement,’ I find it to be ridiculous and I got to the point where I won’t comply with it. You can take me to jail. They could prosecute me. I see it as, I’m standing up for my rights as an American. If I don’t stand up for my rights, we lose our rights.”
Mr. Bosstick walked back and forth across the Bread and Roses driveway and police first warned him, then ticketed him, and finally arrested Mr. Bosstick, charging him with obstruction. He was taken to the county jail where he was processed.
No Place to Walk
Deb Maxwell of Pasco County, Florida, has been a regular sidewalk counselor at Bread and Roses abortion facility for 11 years. Since the code went into effect, she has been careful to stay off the sidewalk, although she says the law is unconstitutional.On Aug. 26 while standing outside the abortion facility, Ms. Maxwell became thirsty, and her Gatorade drink was on one side of the driveway and she was on the other, so she walked out onto busy Highland Avenue to avoid the sidewalk and then walked back and forth using the road multiple times.
Clearwater Police, who guard the abortion facility while it is in operation, gave Ms. Maxwell a ticket for not using the sidewalk.
“You can’t walk across the sidewalk, and you can’t go out into the traffic,” Ms. Maxwell told The Epoch Times. “How are you going to get across? There are no crossings anywhere.”
Attorney Jerry Theophilopoulos has defended several sidewalk cases since the ordinance went into effect.
“They’ve taken away the sidewalk from the public, which would require any individual wanting to head down that sidewalk to enter the roadway in order to be in compliance with this unconstitutional ordinance,” Mr. Theophilopoulos told The Epoch Times.
“Now law enforcement has decided they will ticket individuals for walking in the street, which directly conflicts with our Florida pedestrian statute that permits an individual, when a sidewalk is not provided, to enter the roadway to continue on their route. This unfortunately, once again, shows you the bias of law enforcement and who they’re siding with.”
Florida Preborn Rescue Inc. has brought a lawsuit against the City of Clearwater, asking a judge to declare the sidewalk ordinance unconstitutional. Mr. Theophilopoulos represents Florida Preborn Rescue in this case.
The buffer zone around the entrance to the abortion facility does not end the desire of pro-life individuals to speak with women seeking abortions. Instead, the buffer zone eliminates the chance of a quiet conversation or the discreet provision of pro-life literature.
A New Front
This sidewalk buffer zone is not an isolated case.In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the law bans protests within 20 feet of a health care facility. Pittsburgh requires a 15-foot buffer zone.
The Supreme Court in 2014 struck down a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion centers. Today in Massachusetts, police may require pro-lifers to move back to 25 feet if police determine they have “substantially impeded access to or departure from an entrance or driveway to a reproductive health care facility,” state code says.
“This is a new front opened by pro-abortion rights local officials in other areas across the country,” Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, told The Epoch Times.
The Thomas More Society has cases pending in Minneapolis, where there is a buffer zone in front of an abortion center where sidewalk pedestrians must walk through without stopping, so no one can provide sidewalk counseling.
In Westchester County, New York, there is a follow and harass provision.
“That is, if you walk with a person who is entering the abortion facility you can be ticketed for that,” Mr. Breen said. “And both Westchester and then recently Carbondale, Illinois, implemented ‘bubble zones’ where there’s an anti-speech zone. So, you can’t approach within 8 feet of someone to offer them literature or counseling or assistance, without being cited. We filed suit against Westchester. Westchester just repealed their bubble zone to avoid Supreme Court review. So that was a victory.”
Mr. Breen said he believes the courts will ultimately side with his clients and find that the city cannot restrict the use of the public sidewalk for peaceful sidewalk counseling activity.
Cultural Shift
In the years she has been sidewalk counseling, Ms. Maxwell has seen a cultural shift in the clients walking into the abortion facility.“Years ago, you would see young girls crying, but you don’t see that now. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone crying as they were going in. People are very hardened,” Ms. Maxwell said.
“Abortion centers not only kill babies, but they also hide the evidence [of] human traffickers, and rapists, and pedophiles,“ she said. ”They destroy all the evidence. There’s a lot of human trafficking, I’m sure, that goes in there. It’s a horrible place.”
Ms. Maxwell, her husband, and friends continue their presence at the abortion center as an extension of their faith.
“We obey what Jesus said, and that is to be a voice for the voiceless and rescue those going to slaughter. We bring the gospel of Jesus Christ because people don’t change unless their hearts are changed. And we offer help.”
That help includes connecting women with pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, and offering to walk with women through their pregnancy.
The Epoch Times requested comment from Bread and Roses and was advised to call back and speak to the abortion center’s public relations person the following day. The next day, Bread and Roses kept The Epoch Times on hold for 32 minutes before someone at the facility hung up.
The on-hold message provides some information about the facility.
Bread and Roses is a charter member of the National Abortion Federation and is licensed by the state of Florida.
“Our medical doctor has over 30 years of abortion experience,” the message said. “Some people question the morality of abortion, but we know that women have always been the best ones to decide whether, and when, it is best to bring new life into the world through our body. It is not only your right, it is your responsibility to make the best choice you can.”
The on-hold message uses a sales pitch to encourage abortion-minded women to spend their abortion dollars at Bread and Roses.
“There are other places you could go for an abortion, maybe even some that are less expensive or closer to where you live, but there is no place that will give you more care and attention to you as a whole person,“ it says. ”Isn’t this time difficult enough without having to worry about comfort, safety and the quality? You deserve the best of care.”
