News & Media

ADF attorneys file appeal on behalf of pro-life advocates harassed by Cleveland officials

CLEVELAND — Backed by ADF attorneys, a pro-life advocate silenced for expressing his views outside a Cleveland abortion clinic is appealing his case in federal court.  ADF along with an allied attorney filed suit against the city in 2005 after officials cited local ordinances as the basis for silencing Hugh Gaughan.

“The Constitution forbids municipalities from regulating the speech of its citizens through vague and overbroad ordinances,” said ADF-Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer.  “The stifling of our clients’ pro-life speech through the enforcement of Cleveland’s hopelessly vague “sound device” statute illustrates well why such laws are constitutionally condemned.”

Gaughan was arrested twice and cited with violation of the city’s sound device and noise ordinances after playing an audiotape recording of a 9-1-1 call involving the owner of the Center for Women’s Health, Martin Ruddock, outside the clinic.  The charges were dismissed on both occasions.  Gaughan no longer plays the tape because he fears arrest.

The tape contains a recording of Ruddock, an abortionist at the clinic, speaking to a 9-1-1 operator after complications occurred during an abortion procedure on a 30-year-old woman.  “I just can’t stop the bleeding.  I can’t see what I’m doing, and I want her out of here,” Ruddock says on the tape.  Gaughan played the recording as a way of educating women about the life-threatening dangers associated with abortion.

“If the City of Cleveland wants to regulate sound within its jurisdiction, it is welcome to do so,’” Shafer said.  “But it may not accomplish this goal through imprecise laws which serve as instruments of discrimination.”

 

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.