President Barack Obama recently passed a bill H.R. 347, also called the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act, restricting protestors to protest on Federal Government Functions and in places with rules that do not allow any type of protesting. It is now a federal offense to protest of government owned property.
As some, or most, Americans view this law as unconstitutional. To make this law clear, it does not create any new crimes. It actually happens to be an amended version of a 1971 trespass law. The only place where people would be arrested or detained for disobeying this law would be near places where important persons under Secret Service security are located (ex: the president’s location). Other locations can also include The Super Bowl, Abortion Clinics, and Political Nomination conventions.
“H.R. 347 did make one noteworthy change, which may make it easier for the Secret Service to overuse or misuse the statute to arrest lawful protesters,” says journalist Gabe Rottman.
As for freedom of speech, it’s still given to every American. In order to protest, it doesn’t have to be on that particular piece of property that you’re in disagreement with, or that you’re using to bring a message to the public. There are other ways to protest like boycotting, or using the internet to express your distaste; picket signs don’t always have to be made for people to understand that there’s a problem. They’re not going to change their minds.
Outside of abortion clinics all over the world, there are people protesting with signs that say “pray for the baby” “what if your last day on earth was in the womb?” and so on. In 1973, a Supreme Court decision in the case Roe v. Wade declared abortion to be legal in all 50 states, determining that it is a woman’s right to privacy which some protestors have gone out of their way to reverse. There have been multiple cases where the lives of Abortion Doctors have been taken by pro-life protestors. A lot of current abortion clinics are federally run which now makes it illegal to protest.