A major Prolife victory happened on July 12, 2019 when the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Ellen Hermann‘s conviction of handing out pamphlets without a permit. This is significant because over the years, the city of Tuscaloosa has been known to turned a blind eye to Prolife advocates concerns and sometimes even tried to silence their First Amendment Rights. This time, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals basically said; No Tuscaloosa, you cannot punish someone when they have not broken the law.
On May 15, 2019, Governor Kay Ivey signed into law The Alabama Human Life Protection Act. The law makes it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion. The woman would not be criminally liable. The law includes an exception to allow abortions in cases of serious health risks to the woman. Click here to read it in it’s entirety.
*Special note: When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, abortion became illegal in Alabama. However, it’s still important to realize, & remember, the First Amendment rights given to prolife advocates. Below is the information that was pertinent to prolife advocates when abortion was legal in Alabama.*
The legal rights of Prolife Advocates are based on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. You have a First Amendment right to utilize the public right of way as you Stand for LIFE in a helpful, caring way. No special permit is required. A permit is only needed if you are planning a march or demonstration that might cause traffic problems or cause an inconvenience for cars or people.
There is no limit to the number of people who can be outside an abortion clinic at one time as long as you are peaceful, orderly, and are not blocking pedestrian or automobile traffic.
In regards to handing out literature, you may stand on any publicly owned streets, sidewalks, or parks as long as you do not obstruct these areas to pedestrian or automobile traffic. You may also hand out literature- this is called “leafleting”- which is different than “solicitation”. If there are any special city ordinances that prohibit leafleting in certain locations, the police will make you aware of it, then you should follow their instructions.
You may hold signs outside the abortion clinic. The only restriction would be that you cannot have signs so big that they obscure the vision of people or cars.
Should anyone wish to speak with you as you smile and offer help, you should ask them to pull over, or walk over to you to continue the conversation.
In order to know what you legally can, and cannot, do outside an abortion clinic, you need to familiarize yourself with the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). This is a law that was signed by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, which prohibits the following three things:
(1) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is obtaining reproductive health services or providing reproductive health services (this portion of the law typically refers to abortion clinics)
(2) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship
(3) the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship. Under this act, these actions are prohibited: (The following behaviors have especially to do with reproductive health care clinics but can also be applied to places of worship.) * Blocking a person’s access to the entrance of a facility * Impairing cars from entering and/or exiting a facility * Physically stopping people as they are trying to walk toward an entrance or through a parking lot * Making it difficult or dangerous to get in and/or out of a facility * Trespassing on the property of a facility * Committing any act of violence on a clinic employee, escort or patient * Vandalism * Threats of violence * Stalking a clinic employee or reproductive health care provider * Arson or threats of arson * Bombings or bomb threats
Under this act, these actions are NOT prohibited, because they are protected under the First Amendment right to free speech: * Protesting outside of clinics * Distributing literature * Carrying signs * Shouting (as long as no threats are made) * Singing hymns
Any police efforts to deny you your First Amendment right to religious expression, should be met with some version of this polite, respectfully asked question: “Officer, do you mean to deny us our First Amendment rights?”
Obey all police orders, if such misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, or misinformation does occur, then notify one of the more experienced Prolife Advocates, who will take further action. We may request that you file, for internal use, a factual description of your experience. Date, time, name of officer are valuable.
Should one of the West Alabama Women’s Center’s escorts act in an inappropriate or criminal way, let us know. Take down facts, using photographs and video when possible. We may advise further actions, such as requesting you file a police incident report. These incident reports document unequal protection under the law, and constitute, in their aggregate, a powerful legal means of preventing misapplication of the law by City officials, who can suffer severe legal sanctions for nonfeasance.
Familiarize yourself with the boundaries of the public right of way, and any other areas building owners permit you to use. Park your vehicle across from the Riverside Office Center, and walk carefully across the entryway to McFarland Boulevard, on the public right of way. You may confidently be in this area because we have right to utilize the public right of way. Below is a map of the Riverside Office Center. Prolife Advocates can freely stay anywhere outside the black line on the public right of way.
Act with spirit of boldness, not fear, and exercise self-control, power, and love at all times.
In March 2019, the City of Tuscaloosa tried to limit Tuscaloosa Prolife Advocates first Amendment rights. With the help of Martin Cannon of the Thomas More Society and local attorney Sam McClure, we are happy to report that we once again have the freedom to offer abortion minded women hope and help outside of West Alabama Women’s Center. For a summary of the story, click here. To watch the City Council meeting when this issue was resolved, click here (start watching at approximately 31 minutes).
**A Prolife Advocate is someone who publicly and peacefully supports LIFE at all ages and stages. It is someone who thinks that life is precious and no one should be killed just because he/she is unwanted or deemed unworthy.
