Eleanor McCullen’s Story

Should the government be able to create censorship zones in public spaces in which certain views are silenced? Most people would say no. Public spaces—like streets and sidewalks—belong to everyone, not just those who share a government’s favored viewpoint.

Many Americans would agree that any such law that infringed on these spaces would clearly violate the freedom of speech. The right to speak freely in public spaces is one of the most basic protections in the Constitution, and it doesn’t disappear just because the subject makes the government uncomfortable.

But in 2007, Massachusetts passed a law that infringed on those rights. That law created a 35-foot “buffer zone” down the sidewalk in either direction restricting speech around abortion facilities. This effectively required sidewalk counselors, peaceful pro-life advocates like Eleanor McCullen, to call out to women entering the facilities from a faraway sidewalk or the middle of a busy street.

Meet Eleanor McCullen

In the summer of 2000, something stirred in Eleanor one day at Mass. Up until then, life had seemed rich and full enough, “but I was getting a little restless,” she said.

Feeling convicted to do something greater for the Lord, Eleanor asked her priest for a few suggestions. He told her to go down to Planned Parenthood and pray for the women there. Eleanor did just that, and she has been there for the women of Boston ever since.

Two days a week, five hours per day, Eleanor McCullen served as a gentle voice outside the facility, attempting to save the lives of the unborn children of the women who entered.

“I’m like the little voice right as they go to do something that’s not right to say, ‘Wait. Don’t rush in. I can help you.’”

“So if a young couple come up the road, I say, ‘Good morning. How can I help you this morning?’ Many couples say, ‘No thank you. You cannot help me.’ The sad part of that is many come out after the abortion, and they come over to me. I had one about three, well, four weeks ago now. She came out, put her head on my shoulder, and sobbed. So I want to be there just to say, ‘Hey, wait a second. Don’t rush in. Let’s see what we can do to help you.’”

“Everything they say, I honor that. I say, ‘I understand. I understand. That is a challenge. But you can do it with help. I will surround you with all kinds of help.’”

Counseling means a lot more to Eleanor than handing women a card or brochure or even driving them to a clinic. She invites them into her home. She still passes out cookies. She throws them baby showers, providing baby clothes and bassinettes, food baskets, and toys. If need be, she helps them find an apartment and money to cover the rent. She invites their disapproving parents over to the house to talk things through. She has the young families over for a spaghetti dinner now and then, and hosts Christmas parties for their children.

Eleanor even helps pay for some of the children’s schooling. She enlists reliable, dedicated friends who knit the baby caps and blankets, fill the food baskets. When supplies run low, she goes on the radio, urging people to help—and they do, flooding her spare rooms with diapers, formula, baby clothes, and toys.

“And fourteen years later, we have little boys and little girls going to school and mothers calling saying, ‘Thank you. We have our little boy today. Thank you for being there.’”

In her years of service, Eleanor has helped save over 200 unborn children from abortion.

Massachusetts threated Eleanor’s free speech

In 2007, Massachusetts created a fixed “buffer zone” around abortion centers with a law that Planned Parenthood supported. Pro-life counselors were required to keep at least 35 feet away from building entrances, exits, and driveways.

The new “buffer zone” statute impacted the way sidewalk counselors interacted with mothers and fathers and others entering and exiting the centers. Instead of approaching with kindness and compassion, Eleanor and the other counselors were forced to shout at the women and men to get their attention, giving off the impression they were there to condemn, not help.

Eleanor Has the right to speak freely

After the law was passed, Eleanor said, “I was beginning to think, ‘Let it go. Don’t bother. We’ll handle this buffer zone.’ But then it dawned on me: You can’t take away our rights and just say ‘We’re going to put the 35-foot buffer zone.’ No. We’re going to question that.”

She decided to stand up for her rights. And this “buffer zone” law didn’t just violate her free speech; its requirements were completely antithetical to how Eleanor served women, men, and babies in Boston.

“Eleanor—that’s not how she operates,” then-Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner commented. “That’s not her heart. That’s not how she counsels women. This law prevented her from being able to peacefully engage women in a compassionate and a loving way.”

“Keeping somebody at least 35 feet away requires sidewalk counselors to shout to try to get the attention of the patient, which is absolutely contrary to what the sidewalk counselor’s trying to do,” says Alliance Defending Freedom Allied Attorney Michael DePrimo, who represented Eleanor. “They don’t want to shout. They want to speak to them in a normal conversational voice. A smile is important. Eye contact is important. A normal conversational voice is critical in order to establish trust.”

The Supreme Court upholds Eleanor’s free speech

Various areas of the government have worked against pro-life speech for years, whether against pro-life pregnancy centers or sidewalk counselors such as Eleanor. If the government disagrees with pro-life speech, it often uses tactics such as targeting speakers, passing laws prohibiting pro-life speech, or passing laws requiring pro-abortion speech.

“The courts have been chipping away at the rights of pro-lifers, making it much more difficult for them to express their messages, even on public sidewalks. The more government is able to come in and inhibit people from [expressing] their point of view on the public ways, the more difficult it becomes to actually get our particular view before the people,” DePrimo said.

But Eleanor persevered in standing for her free speech, and over five years after she first filed her case, it finally reached the Supreme Court. In a unanimous ruling for free speech, the Court struck down Massachusetts’s unconstitutional “buffer zone” law.

“The U.S. Supreme Court had never approved of any type of a law even remotely similar to the Massachusetts statute,” Michael DePrimo said, “The [C]ourt has, for many, many years, said that speech on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open.”

The Court’s decision didn’t affect just the abortion center Eleanor faithfully counseled at. Other cities across the country also began repealing similar “buffer zone” statutes, making it easier for pro-life counselors to do their life-saving work.

“It’s all glory to God,” Eleanor said, “and thank you to our lawyers for persevering.”

Support Speech and Life Today

All Eleanor wanted to do was offer help, hope, and love through conversations outside abortion facilities, and the Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts’s law restricting her conversations was unconstitutional.

Every American has the right to peacefully express their views on public property. This extends to pro-life sidewalk counselors who engage in peaceful prayer and speech outside abortion facilities.

Will you help defend pro-life speech with a gift today?