Pro-Life Action Ministries, et al. v. City of Minneapolis

On behalf of Pro-Life Action Ministries, Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit in April 2023 against the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota challenging the city’s anti-speech buffer zone around entrances to abortion facilities. 

Minneapolis City Code Chapter 405 prohibited pro-life advocates from entering even the public sidewalk portion of an abortion facility driveway while sidewalk counseling and sharing life-affirming messages of hope.

In reality, this ordinance was “an unconstitutional, content-based exclusion zone, created exclusively for the purpose of shutting down pro-life speech outside of abortion facilities,” said Erick Kaardal, Thomas More Society Special Counsel. “It’s a simple situation,” Kaardal added, “the ministry of pro-life sidewalk counseling is a peaceful interaction with pregnant women to convey life-affirming alternatives to abortion. Yet the City of Minneapolis has specifically enacted an ordinance designed to prevent any success at conducting this peaceful interaction by Pro-Life Action Ministries, its staff members or volunteers, and any others involved in similar activities. And, the young pregnant woman constitutionally loses by not getting the information she may want.”