After a mistrial last week, a San Francisco judge has set a new trial date for an anti-abortion activist who posted a video on social media allegedly threatening a Planned Parenthood clinic escort, raising questions about the limits of political speech online.
Anastasia Rogers, a member of anti-abortion group The Survivors, was charged with violating California’s version of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits videotaping and distributing videos of reproductive health patients, employees or volunteers for the purpose of intimidating them from becoming or remaining in that role.
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The district attorney’s office alleges that a video Rogers posted on social media, which features the words “Unalive them” over a clip of a San Francisco Planned Parenthood clinic escort, violated the FACES Act by threatening the person pictured. But Rogers’ attorneys argued in court that the clip was taken out of context, and her behavior was protected political speech.
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