A Reagan-era federal judge in Boston barred enforcement of a new Massachusetts law that prohibits protestors from coming within 18 feet of an abortion clinic. In his Nov. 20 decision, U.S. District Judge Edward F. Harrington–appointed over the objections of prominent members of the Massachusetts bar for his lack of judicial temperament–referred to the protestors’ “sincere message of respect for the sanctity of innocent human life.” He described employees of reproductive health clinics as “very zealous advocates” for abortion, with a “strong financial interest of philosophic incentive” to encourage abortions. And, according to Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara, he all but characterized Planned Parenthood as an “abortion mill,” rather than as a provider of a broad range of reproductive health services. Harrington has scheduled a hearing on whether the state’s so-called buffer-zone law is constitutional.
