The Breakfast Table

Supreme Court: The fallout of the McCullen v. Coakley decision in Boston.

The scene outside a Boston abortion clinic in the wake of McCullen.

protests outside of a Planned Parenthood on Commonwealth Avenue.
On Saturday, the anti-abortion protest in front of Planned Parenthood on Commonwealth Avenue pushed past the yellow line that once marked protected territory. Above, Ray Neary behind the yellow line on June 26, 2014.

Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

A footnote to Emily’s remark about sweet grandmother McCullen, and Emily’s deciding to approve the McCullen decision—here are the first three paragraphs of an article in yesterday’s Boston Globe:

For the first time in seven years, the Saturday morning antiabortion protest in front of Planned Parenthood on Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay pushed past the arcing yellow line that once marked protected territory: the 35-foot buffer zone. Activists chanted, prayed, and sang during a nonviolent six-hour protest that occasionally erupted into vitriol and shouting.

“Please don’t kill your baby! You can celebrate a birthday next year!” protesters shouted at young women entering the clinic. They waved signs imploring passersby to say no to abortions, some depicting infants nestled serenely in their mothers’ arms, another showing a bloody baby clutched by hands bearing the marks of stigmata.

At its height, the protest drew about 70 people — three times more than the average Saturday morning crowd, typically the largest gathering of the week — a turnout inspired by Thursday’s US Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Massachusetts law that since 2007 had kept them outside the yellow line.

You can read the full article, “Abortion battle spills across line at Boston clinic: Territory no longer protected as buffer zone erased,” here.