A state law that restricts protesters from approaching women entering abortion clinics was reinstated by a federal appeals court in Boston, a month after a lower court declared it unconstitutional. A District Court judge had said the law infringed on the free speech rights of anti-abortion demonstrators by forcing them to stay at least 18 feet from clinics, and at least 6 feet from women entering a clinic. But the federal appeals court said the harm to public safety from barring enforcement outweighs the "potential effect" of 1st Amendment violations of enforcing the law.
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