Judge orders buffer zone around Kentucky's last abortion facility

A federal judge has ordered the creation of a buffer zone outside the last abortion clinic in Kentucky to prevent pro-life activists from protesting in the area.

The order, issued by U.S. District Court Judge David Hale, came after 10 individuals were arrested in May for blocking the entrance to EMW Women's Clinic in Louisville.

Life News reported that the protest in May was part of the planned effort by the group Operation Save America to risk "arrest to rescue their preborn neighbor."

Federal prosecutors requested the buffer zone on Thursday, and Hale granted the emergency request on Friday ahead of another protest planned for this week by the group.

The order would keep the 10 individuals and other pro-life activists from coming onto the abortion facility, but Hale noted that it "does not restrict any of the rights of the defendants, including their First Amendment rights, outside the zone."

Organizers of the rally, which runs through July 29, stated that the group does not plan on blocking the entrance to the clinic. But Joseph Spurgeon, a local leader for Operation Save America, noted on social media on Saturday that the government still sent federal marshals to keep pro-life protesters away from the facility.

The buffer zone has been set at 15 feet from the front of the building to the patient drop-off zone and 7.5 feet from either side of the columns supporting the overhang at the clinic's entrance. White lines will be painted on the sidewalk and street to indicate the buffer zone area.

Spurgeon, who serves as the pastor of Sovereign King Church, also complained during a press conference on Wednesday that Christians are being kept away from the building.

"Church-going men and women in Louisville and the surrounding area in both Kentucky and Indiana who come out to plead with women not to get an abortion, who hold signs depicting both the gruesome reality of murder and the beauty of life, and who preach the gospel, are now considered far more dangerous than the ones who are killing innocent children," he stated, according to Christian News Network.

"They are dangerous because they try to talk women out of getting abortions. They might convince women to keep their children rather than murder them," he continued.

The temporary restraining order will be enforced by U.S. Marshals, and the buffer zone will be in place starting two hours before the EMW Women's Clinic opens and two hours after it closes.