A pro-life advocate who is being sued by a Washington, D.C. school for protesting a Planned Parenthood clinic has agreed to curtail his activities near the school.

According to The Washington Post, Robert Weiler reached the agreement with Two Rivers Charter School in part because he did not intend to return to the school or the clinic next door. School officials sued Weiler and four other named pro-life activists for allegedly yelling at students, holding graphic images of abortion victims and going onto school property to advocate for life, among other activities.

The injunction, if approved by D.C. Superior Court Judge Jeanette Clark, would stop Weiler from going onto school property, and block his access to Two Rivers. The Washington Post further reports:

It also establishes a perimeter around the school within which Weiler may not protest during certain hours.

In addition, the agreement prohibits Weiler from using posters or displays larger than 11 inches by 17 inches “depicting gruesome images of mutilated body parts or dead bodies in a manner reasonably likely to be viewed by children under twelve years of age attending school at Two Rivers’ elementary school or middle school buildings” or using such violent terms as “kill” and “murder.”

The Charges

Weiler was the most prominent of the activists sued because of the five years he spent in prison for planning to bomb a clinic in Maryland. He was convicted in 2006 after his parents called police, and was found to illegally possess a firearm because of a prior conviction.

Weiler, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder, was arrested in 2014 at the same clinic he intended to bomb.

Two of the other two named defendants are Ruby Nicdao and Jonathan Darnel. Nicdao is accused of trespassing on school property, and both he and Darnel are accused of chasing down parents to hand out pro-life literature.

Darnel also wrote a letter to the school, according to the school’s complaint. He allegedly wrote that “if you are failing to challenge Planned Parenthood, I feel a moral obligation to alert the community (including the parents of your students) myself.”

“I’m sure you don’t want to see me, my anti-abortion friends and our graphic images any more than we want to be in your neighborhood,” says the letter, which notes other activities common in areas with abortion clinics, such as police and ambulances.

The school is seeking court fees as well as court-ordered injunctions stopping the defendants from going on school property; blocking or obstructing entryways to the school, public spaces, “or parking areas owned or used by Two Rivers Public Charter School”; demonstrating and picketing within a certain distance of the school; and “whistling, shouting, yelling, use of bullhorns” in their effort to promote the pro-life position.

Part of a Narrative

The accusations made by the school are common among abortion supporters, though D.C. pro-life activists like Reverend Patrick Mahoney told LifeSiteNews that many parents at Twin Rivers oppose having an abortion clinic just yards from the school. Mahoney is not named in the lawsuit.

One of the people who is named is Lauren Handy. She told LifeSiteNews when the lawsuit was filed that the school “has built their case on exaggerations, half-truths and outright lies. They are using the same tactics their new neighbors, Planned Parenthood, has been using against pro-lifers since Roe v. Wade, but that’s to be expected when people’s wallets are involved.”

“To be a voice for the voiceless has never been popular, but the First Amendment protects unpopular speech,” continued Handy. “To bypass that and restrict our speech based on the listeners’ reaction is a shameful departure from bedrock principles.”

Larry Cirignano, who was also named in the lawsuit, said the claims that he acted illegally are false. “We complied with the police officer and stood off the sidewalk. I did not yell or engage with students. I did hold a picture of an abortion victim,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Two Rivers is not the only group that is using the law to block pro-life advocates’ activities on public property. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Colorado law that implemented a bubble law around people going into abortion clinics, a space that pro-life advocates cannot enter, though it ruled against a similar barrier in 2014 in Massachusetts.

A number of states have so-called “barrier” laws, as well as “bubble” laws that limit how close pro-life advocates can come to abortion clinics and people going into clinics, respectively. The laws apply to public property.

Last week, Planned Parenthood’s campaign arm showed Democratic National Convention attendees a seven-minute virtual reality program showing real and simulated pro-life activists yelling at women who go into abortion clinics.

Actual pro-life advocates pushed back on the Planned Parenthood propaganda in comments to The Stream and The Daily Signal. Another former pro-life activist who coordinated several 40 Days for Life prayer campaigns, Jacinta Whiting, said in an e-mail to The Stream, “Planned Parenthood is definitely misrepresenting women in” the video presented at the convention.

“Most pro-life activists are not rude in their approach,” continued Whiting, who is a wife and mother. “They pray quietly and approach women respectfully. This misrepresentation is not surprising since Planned Parenthood has a long history of deception and lies in order to further its pro-abortion agenda. They want to promote abortion so much that they disregard what is truly best for women and what is actually true or legal.”

Whiting noted that while “bubble and barrier laws are a violation of constitutional free speech against those who want to speak the truth, save lives and preserve women from a lifetime of regret,” pro-lifers should rely on God most of all. “In the end our most effective weapon is prayer, because God can work in the hearts and minds of those we encounter. However, we need to reject these efforts to enact barrier laws because they are only an artificial defense sought by those who do not want to hear the truth.”