Lopez v. San Diego

Roger Lopez is a sidewalk counselor from California who regularly volunteers his time to offer free resources, compassionate support, and hope to abortion-minded women. The San Diego downtown facility operator performs more than 24,000 abortions a year in southern California. This sad reality has motivated Roger to counsel outside of a downtown San Diego abortion facility for the past 15 years—because every conversation he has with an abortion-minded woman is a chance to save a preborn life.  

When the City of San Diego enacted a repressive “bubble zone” ordinance targeting pro-life advocates, Roger spoke up. Represented by his Thomas More Society attorneys, Roger sued the City of San Diego, believing that the speech-restricting ordinance violates his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the rights of abortion-bound women to hear it.  

While ostensibly enacted to protect public safety, San Diego has provided no evidence to support the constitutional nature of the ordinance, and the ordinance, for all intents and purposes, appears to be an excuse to discriminate based on content and viewpoint, according to the lawsuit. The federal lawsuit demonstrates that the city law was borne out of the close relationship between San Diego public officials and Planned Parenthood—as evidenced by the operator of the downtown facility’s donation of tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of San Diego’s city attorney, council members, and mayor.  

On behalf of Roger Lopez, Thomas More Society attorneys are asking the court to uphold the First Amendment rights of pro-life advocates, as well as every abortion-minded woman—who has the right to hear their “message of hope.”