(UnitedVoice.com) – Pro-life protesters often demonstrate outside of Planned Parenthood clinics. The organization is the largest abortion provider in the US. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently ruled against the healthcare organization in a First Amendment case.
The court issued a unanimous 7-0 ruling ordering a 2020 injunction against a pro-life protester to be dismissed. Four years ago, a Trempealeau County judge prohibited Brian Aish from going near Nurse Practioner Nancy Kindschy.
The nurse claimed Aish threatened her while she was working at a clinic in Blair, a city in western Wisconsin. The activist allegedly told her that if she didn’t quit her job then bad things were going to happen to her family.
Aish was a regular at the clinic from 2014 to 2019. He stood on the sidewalk and held up signs that quoted Bible verses. He also spoke out against abortion. Then in 2019, he started directing some of his remarks toward Kindschy. In October of that year, he allegedly told her she could be “killed by a drunk driver” and that it wouldn’t “be long before bad things” happened to her and her family. The county judge issued a four-year injunction prohibiting the activist from going near the nurse but Aish appealed.
In 2022, a state court upheld the injunction. Two years later, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the injunction dismissed. The ruling was a surprise because four of the seven justices are Liberals. However, the justices ruling was in line with a 2023 US Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult for people to be convicted of making a violent threat.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court cited the SCOTUS precedent in its decision and determined Aish’s remarks weren’t true threats because he didn’t express a “desire for violence to befall” the nurse, he merely said she could get hurt or something could happen and then justice would not be able to be served.
In a separate case, the state justices agreed to hear arguments in a high-profile case brought by Planned Parenthood to determine if the state constitution protects abortion.
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