Several Toledo City Council members want to make it a misdemeanor offense to willfully obstruct a person’s access to medical counseling and treatment at a reproductive health-care facility.
Councilmen Nick Komives, Theresa Gadus, and Vanice Williams plan to introduce legislation at city council’s agenda review meeting Tuesday to enact a new section of Toledo Municipal Code section titled “patient safety.”
“... the purpose of this code section is to increase public safety and order at reproductive health care facilities, protect the medical privacy of patients seeking medical services as well as protecting the patients’ physical and psychological well-being, protect the free flow of traffic on sidewalks and streets, and at the same time ensure that First Amendment speech rights are not unduly restricted or burdened,” the proposed ordinance states.
Mr. Komives said recent incidents documented by volunteer clinic escorts at Capital Care of Toledo on West Sylvania Avenue indicate that anti-abortion activists have tried to prevent patients from accessing the clinic’s parking lot, have blocked patients from getting in their vehicles to leave the clinic until the patient takes a piece of anti-abortion literature, and have followed and screamed in the faces of women as they attempt to enter the facility.
“The only reason these volunteers exist is to protect the patients who are going in to seek legal, constitutionally protected health care,” he said. “This isn’t meant to be a discussion about abortion. It's meant to be a discussion about treating people with respect and dignity. This is literally about safety for patients.”
Capital Care is the only remaining abortion clinic in Toledo and provides medication abortions, not surgical abortions.
The ordinance would make it a fourth-degree misdemeanor for someone to:
• Physically obstruct or block another person from entering or exiting a reproductive health-care facility by physically striking, shoving, restraining, grabbing, or otherwise subjecting the person to unwanted physical contact, or attempt or threaten to do the same
• Obstruct or block the premises of a reproductive health-care facility so as to impede access to or from the facility, attempt to do the same, or block the driveway
• Approach or follow another person within eight feet of them, unless that person consents, for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with them in the public way or sidewalk area. The eight-foot buffer zone would apply to a 100-foot radius of the health care facility.
“This ordinance ensures that First Amendment freedoms including speech and peaceable assembly are not unduly restricted or overburdened, and no more than minimally necessary to ensure safe and unhindered access to reproductive health care facilities,” the legislation states.
Peter Range, director of the Office for Life and Justice at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, hosts monthly prayer vigils and sidewalk counseling outside the Capital Care clinic.
“One of the things we try to emphasize is we’re there to love the abortion doctors, the abortion nurses, the moms and dads facing these decisions, and we’re there to love the pre-born children as well,” he said. “So, like the ordinance, I don't want to see anyone abused or harassed in any shape or form.”
Mr. Range said he isn’t surprised the legislation is being introduced ahead of the annual 40 Days of Life Campaign, where anti-abortion activists hold a nonstop prayer vigil for 40 days outside abortion clinics across the country. Toledo’s campaign is set to kick off Feb. 17.
“No one, when I’ve been out there, has restricted or overburdened anyone, or tried to keep someone’s car from coming in,” he said. “It has not been my experience — I've been out there the six years — and it’s just so unfortunate that we have to approach this issue in such a hotly political way.”
Mr. Range said he would rather see the parties involved have a discussion about how to ensure that all sides are respectful and that First Amendment rights are protected, instead of local officials pushing for the legislation. He added that people have been aggressive toward the anti-abortion crowd, including shouting profanity at them and shoving open umbrellas into their faces.
This isn’t the first time Toledo City Council has debated enacting protections for women seeking abortions or other reproductive treatment. A similar proposal in 2017 sought to make it a misdemeanor to impede access to health-care facilities, including abortion clinics, but the measure was never brought to a vote.
Kristin Hady, volunteer coordinator for clinic escorts, said she supports the latest effort and believes elected officials have a duty to protect their constituents.
“People should be safe and protected and not have to endure harassment if we can avoid it,” she said. “It’s not going to kick anybody off of our sidewalks, but it does tell the city, and it tells patients, and it tells the clinic that our safety is important. No other patient has to deal with harassment that these patients deal with at these clinics.”
Ms. Williams said she co-sponsored the legislation because protecting women’s rights is important. To her, it’s synonymous with protecting human rights.
“That goes into a whole other topic for me being a Black woman. You can’t take away one right and not want to take away my other rights as a Black woman. Don't tell me what I need to do with my body to keep myself healthy,” she said. “This is bigger than abortion. This is bigger than one person’s thought pattern or religious convictions. This is about the movement that has been fought for by many people before us. Women's rights are very important.”
Ms. Williams added she doesn’t want to prevent anyone from peacefully protesting on the public right of way at the clinic on West Sylvania Avenue, or at any other reproductive health-care facility, but obstructing access to a medical office should not be tolerated.
“If we have this protection in place, people cannot get into other people’s faces. I know free speech is going to come up. And you can say what you want. We can't stop you from standing on a public sidewalk, but you will not touch me,” she said.
Mr. Range said the diocese has consulted legal counsel regarding the pending ordinance, and he anticipates it will be challenged in court if it is enacted.
“I feel like this is going to a legislative approach to paint the entire pro-life side as one way, and they are not trying to find real solutions,” he said. “It’s going to cost the taxpayers here in Toledo thousands of dollars at the end of the day.”
Should the ordinance pass, a court may sentence someone who violates the law to a maximum fine of $1,000 and a jail term not to exceed one year.
“I would encourage people to volunteer at the clinic and get a better understanding from these patients who are there to receive health care that they are legally allowed to receive,” Mr. Komives said. “They should be able to do so like any other patient seeking health care, with privacy, with dignity, and with respect, and that's just not happening.”
Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, called the proposed ordinance offensive and unfortunate, and said it unfairly targets the Catholic community.
“I think the timing is extremely unfortunate with all the matters that we’re facing as a state,” he said. “With the pandemic, unemployment, the issues our schools are facing, this is the issue the city of Toledo is going to spend their time on?”
City council will discuss the proposal during its virtual agenda review meeting at 2 p.m. Feb. 9. The public can access the meeting online at toledo.legistar.com.
First Published February 4, 2021, 6:30 p.m.
