WALNUT CREEK — Abortion protesters soon will need to keep an eight-foot distance from patients at Walnut Creek’s Planned Parenthood clinic if the City Council approves a proposed ordinance it strongly supported Tuesday night.
The ordinance, which aims to prevent protesters from harassing and intimidating patients and other visitors by establishing a buffer zone between them within 100 feet of the clinic, returns to the council in two weeks for a formal vote.
Similar to legislation passed in San Jose, Oakland, Napa and Colorado, the ordinance is intended to give Planned Parenthood patients some breathing room as they enter the clinic’s narrow entrance at 1357 Oakland Blvd.
“What we are doing with the ordinance is actually ensuring not only the safety and security of all involved, but also guaranteeing the right to access healthcare while also guaranteeing the right to free speech,” Councilwoman Cindy Silva said at the meeting.
The council was scheduled to vote on the ordinance Tuesday, but postponed taking action after questions arose about a provision meant to tamp down the noise that often accompanies the twice-a-week protests.
That provision prohibits “excessive noise, including shouting, or (using) a loudspeaker, bullhorn, or electronic audio instrument or device that produces or reproduces amplified sound.”
City Attorney Steve Mattas said more time is needed to define protester noise. Because the clinic is near Interstate 680, the city must measure the level of ambient noise around it to determine what constitutes an “excessive” demonstration, he explained.
“I think it would be better to have a specific noise regulation that is particularly tailored to a medical facility,” Mattas said, noting that buffer-zone ordinances should be as precise as possible to withstand legal challenges.
“The courts have recognized that those types of regulations are permissible and do not constitute an infringement of free speech, but there has to be a strong foundation and strong evidentiary basis for that,” he said.
“I am not in favor of people using loud means of communication near a medical facility,” Mayor Matt Francois said. “If we need to take a step to regulate that, I’m prepared to do that.”
Councilwoman Cindy Darling urged staff to “return quickly to the issue of sound. We need to find an appropriate level so that we can protect the peace of the medical facility at hand.”
Some of the abortion protesters who regularly show up at the Planned Parenthood clinic said they were encouraged that the council decided to take two more weeks to act on the ordinance.
“The way it’s written is absolutely absurd,” Don Blythe told the council. The grave nature of what happens inside the clinic “does require that we talk beyond a restaurant-level voice to get over the sound of the freeway and the (other) noise.”
Other speakers urged the council to include noise regulations in the buffer-zone ordinance, which the city indicated it plans to do, though not until later if the ordinance is approved.
“Amplified sound and shouting by the protesters is a huge part of the safety problems that we and everybody around encounter,” said Robin Poppino-Kuntz, a volunteer at the clinic who escorts patients to and from it.
Gilda Gonzalez, Planned Parenthood’s regional president, has previously said abortion protests at the Walnut Creek clinic are more intense than at any other Bay Area clinic.
Sometimes they have resulted in heated confrontations and even physical fights, including a clash in 2020 that landed private security guards hired by the anti-abortion demonstrators with assault and battery charges.
“You think you‘re doing something good for our patients — you are not,” Gonzalez said at the meeting, addressing the protesters directly. “You are bothering them. You are not educating them. They do not feel care or comfort from you.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com