Pennsylvania Anti-Choice Sue For Right to Litter

Robin Marty

So much for trying to greenwash the anti-choice movement.  Now some want the right to litter.

Green living has become such a popular cause that even the anti-choice movement has tried to co-opt environmentalism, claiming the birth control pill is bad for the environment.  So it’s pretty ironic that some anti-choice folk in Pennsylvania are suing for the right to litter.

Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Two local anti-abortion activists are suing the City of Pittsburgh in federal court, alleging that an ordinance that restricts how flyers are distributed violates their First Amendment rights.

Kathleen A. Ramsey, of Ross, and Albert A. Brunn, of Pittsburgh, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

The city ordinance bars people from placing flyers on unoccupied cars and from distributing flyers “so as to cause litter or unreasonably interfere with pedestrians or traffic.” In the suit, Ms. Ramsey and Mr. Brunn contend that the ordinance “is overbroad and constitutionally vague and impinges on the rights of free speech and due process.”

Ordinances such as this exist for two reasons — to help people avoid endless piles of unsolicited trash on their cars, and to save cities the expense of cleaning up the litter that inevitably ends up on the ground when people remove the material. 

But once again anti-choice advocates are stating that any activity they choose to participate in should be covered under the umbrella of “free speech,” be it littering, yelling at people on the streets, or refusing to do the job they were hired to do.