# Do abortion protest "bubble" laws also apply to dental clinics?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-abortion-protest-bubble-laws-also-apply-to-dental-clinics/726648>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 31, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-abortion-protest-bubble-laws-also-apply-to-dental-clinics/726648 "2015-07-31T14:43:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-abortion-protest-bubble-laws-also-apply-to-dental-clinics/726648/1 "2015-07-31T14:43:58Z")

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**You’ll never drill teeth in this town again!**

There are those “protest bubble” laws that require protesters ti stay a certain distance away from the entrance to an abortion clinic.

Are those laws specific to abortion clinics, or do they apply to other types of medical clinics, like the dental practice of the dentist who killed Cecil the Lion?

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-abortion-protest-bubble-laws-also-apply-to-dental-clinics/726648/2 "2015-07-31T16:26:04Z")

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Some (if not all) of these laws specifically reference right to access reproductive health services, so I don’t think they’d apply to a dental clinic run by the Great White Hunter.

A key difference is that any dental clinic protesters are unlikely to approach/harass patients in the same manner as (for example) protesters at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Whether patients who are already apprehensive about a root canal would face additional stress going through a line of people waving picket signs is another matter.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-abortion-protest-bubble-laws-also-apply-to-dental-clinics/726648/3 "2015-07-31T19:01:57Z")

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You’re more optimistic than I am. I can easily envisage some of the Cecil mourners accosting the dental patients with allegations that by patronising this dentist that are subsidising his !serial animal murder! habit.

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-abortion-protest-bubble-laws-also-apply-to-dental-clinics/726648/4 "2015-07-31T22:24:53Z")

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The protesters might wave pictures (or large-scale models) of bloody aborted deciduous teeth at patients entering the clinic!