The city council of Spokane, Washington approved a measure 6-1 designed to limit protesting outside a local Planned Parenthood clinic. It strengthens currently-existing laws that make it illegal to “willfully or recklessly interfere with access to or from a health care facility” by “making noise that unreasonably disturbs the peace within the facility.” Law enforcement will be able to enforce increasingly harsh penalties for repeat offenders of the new ordinance; which is expected to be signed by the city mayor.One group, which calls itself The Church at Planned Parenthood, is especially targeted by the rule. The organization regularly holds worship services and prayer vigils outside Planned Parenthood and is likely to bear the brunt of any new laws to limit their peaceful presence.
“We really feel like they just don’t like us there, not that we’re disrupting. So we feel unfairly treated,” Pastor Ken Peters told KREM-TV.
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