Coalition asks Supreme Court to consider Catholic sidewalk counselor's appeal

By Kate Scanlon, OSV News

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Pro-life groups, religious freedom groups and First Amendment experts are among those who have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case of a Catholic sidewalk counselor whose ministry is restricted by a New York county law prohibiting pro-life protesters from approaching people outside abortion clinics.

Becket, a Washington-based religious liberty law firm, said it is representing Debra Vitagliano, the sidewalk counselor, as she seeks for the high court to review its 2000 ruling in Hill v. Colorado, which involved a similar Colorado law enacted in 1993. That law regulated First Amendment activity within 100 feet of an entrance to any health care facility and prohibited approaching a person within eight feet without their consent to provide any protest materials or counseling.

A Westchester County, New York, law establishes a similar 100-foot zone around abortion clinics, which is inclusive of public sidewalks, and prohibits anyone from getting within eight feet of another person in that radius without explicit consent, similar to the law upheld in Hill.

According to Becket, Vitagliano is a devout Catholic and occupational therapist for children with special needs, who feels called to share alternatives with women considering abortions, but is barred from doing so under county law.

Vitagliano and Becket asked the high court to review her case in July.

"I want to offer abortion-vulnerable women a message of hope and compassion, letting them know that they are loved and can keep their babies," Vitagliano said in an Aug. 25 statement about amicus briefs filed on her behalf.

"I am thankful for this outpouring of support for my ministry and sidewalk counselors across the country, and I pray that the Justices will take my case and vindicate my First Amendment rights," she said.

Amicus curiae, is Latin for "friend of the court," and is a term for legal documents filed by those who are not party to a legal case but have some form of related information or opinion to offer.

The attorneys general of 13 states joined Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in filing a brief in support of Vitagliano.

New Wave Feminists, Richard W. Garnett of Notre Dame Law School, the Knights of Columbus and the March for Life Education and Defense Fund also are listed among the friend-of-the-court briefs filed by Aug. 24.

"Debra Vitagliano is a hero who shows up for preborn babies in what is scheduled to be their last moments of life as they are brought into Planned Parenthood, and gives their mothers hope in the most dire of circumstances," Chelsey Youman, national director of public policy for Human Coalition, one of the pro-life groups that filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, said in a statement.

"We support the work of counselors like Debra who care for women enough to show them support systems -- like those offered by Human Coalition -- exist outside of abortion," Youman said. "This is true care to empower women, not abandoning them and their children to the abortion industry."

Youman said the county's law "cuts women off from potentially life-changing options at a critical point in their lives" while villainizing people like Vitagliano.

"Human Coalition clinics serve women in this position every day, and we know that the vast majority -- 76% -- of our clients say they would prefer to parent if their circumstances were different," she said. "Pregnant women want and need a support system that affirms their dignity and the dignity of their children. Laws like this one cruelly funnel them into an abortion facility while blocking them off from community members who -- unlike Planned Parenthood -- stand ready and willing to extend compassion and direct them to clinics offering tangible help."

Mark Rienzi, president and CEO at Becket, said in a statement the government should neither "outlaw peaceful conversations on public sidewalks" nor make it harder for women to get complete information on abortion.

"As this wave of support shows, it's time for the Court to fix the mistake in Hill and make clear that the law protects people like Debra Vitagliano who want to offer help to women in need," Rienzi said.

Becket noted Westchester County is due to respond to the Supreme Court by Sept. 25.