"Anti-abortion activists say a fixed 35-foot zone is a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech and is harmful to women because it denies them access to information about alternatives to abortion."

You mean the same information about alternatives to abortion that the anti's keep forcing the clinics to provide?

As for harming their rights to free speech: Get a telephoto lense and a megaphone, jackasses. Then your activities won't be harmed one bit.

ACLU of Massachusetts opposes this bill. From the Boston Globe, 12/29/05:

Carol V. Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said that her organization does not support the legislation as filed, in part because it would set a uniform boundary for a large number of women's health clinics that vary widely in where they're located and in the kind of access demonstrators have. A buffer zone that may afford a reasonable opportunity for free speech at one clinic, she said, may be too restrictive at a different clinic.

Rose said her organization will work with lawmakers to craft a more appropriate bill.

''This presents a situation where two rights are in conflict: the right of people to have access to medical care to which they're entitled and also the right of people to have their opposition to abortion . . . be heard," she said.

Y'know, come to think of it, I kinda like the 6' floating buffer zone thing.

That way you could get a stick or something that's exactly six feet long, and if anybody comes into range, you can hit 'em with it for violating the buffer zone.

How about a compromise: an 18-foot radius around the clinic where they can't go, and a 6-foot buffer zone extending from there out to 35 feet.

Wonder if that'd satisfy the ACLU.

Maybe there should be a required uniform buffer zone for each clinic? Just a thought.

This is ridiculous! The buffer zone should be determined by the individual woman coming to the clinic for her treatment. Where the hell does free speach usurp her right to medical treatment for her personal circumstance? We are talking about individual women who have individual concerns. Any zone that interferes with that is not acceptable in that light. In other words, if she finds protests to her choice as being offensive, then that zone has been crossed, and it is no longer tolerable. Whether it is 12 feet or twelve inches. Both are offensive to the woman's choice in making her personal decision.
Just stay out of her way and keep your personal dogma to yourselves, is the best answer to this question. This onlsaught of the Christian Taliban will have to be met and defeated in the new year.