Safe Access Zones, Free Speech and Abortion Rights

May 28th was the Global Day of Action for Women's Health. Around the world, the preceding week was punctuated by significant actions for abortion rights. The most significant was the resounding "Yes" vote in the May 25 Irish referendum on removing the ban on abortion from the constitution. This gave a shot in the arm to the campaign for abortion rights in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, where the anti-abortion provisions of the UK's Offences Against the Persons Act of 1861 remain in force. Hundreds gathered in Belfast on May 28th to launch a campaign to push the UK government to lift the ban on abortion rights there. The same day, protesters in Brisbane rallied to push to overturn similar legislation in Queensland.

In NSW, May 24 was marked by the passage through the state's upper house of a bill to protect access to abortion clinics. It is due to be debated in the lower house next month.

If passed, the bill will introduce stiff penalties ($5500 fine or 6 months in gaol or both, for a first offence; $11000 or 12 months or both, for a second offence) for anyone harassing people entering medical clinics where abortions are performed. Similar penalties would apply to anyone interfering with or obstructing anyone trying to enter the clinic, anyone trying to talk or give literature about abortion to anyone entering the clinic (if it is likely to cause distress or anxiety), and anyone filming or recording anyone in the vicinity of the clinic without their consent.

The legislation is designed to create a 150m buffer zone around the clinics and clinic entrances, to allow anyone needing to access the clinics - patients, support people and staff - to do so in privacy and without intimidation or abuse from those opposed to abortion.

Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT all have similar legislation. There are moves to introduce protective legislation into WA, and the Queensland Law Reform Commission, due to report on modernising the state's abortion laws by the end of June, invited public comment on the issue of safe access zones among other issues.

In NSW, WA and Queensland, where there is no protective legislation, groups opposed to abortion regularly set up outside clinics to try to prevent abortion by intimidating or convincing patients to change their minds. They are especially active in the 40 days of Lent, observed by some Christian traditions. (For some reason ostensibly to do with following the person who said "Don't judge others, so you won't be judged," while other people are giving up chocolate, they give up minding their own business.) Outside a WA clinic this year, they were distributing information with links to an organisation based in the US, "And then there were none," that aims to end abortion "from the inside out," by convincing staff to stop providing services.

But some clinics are subjected to the harassment year round. MLC Penny Sharp, who co-sponsored the NSW bill, described the behaviour, which extends from displaying distressing images and attempting to hand unwanted literature to people, to sprinkling holy water on people, and calling people "murderer."

Even quiet prayer and polite greetings - in a context where it is clear that a judgement is being made against the decision to undergo abortion - has potential for harm. At best it represents a form of observation that poses a threat to women's right to access reproductive healthcare in privacy and dignity. While many people undergoing abortion find the decision straightforward, for others, it is difficult and painful and the distress of the decision and procedure can be compounded by the scrutiny and judgement of others. In any case, it is not a form of scrutiny, stigmatisation, harassment or interference consistently meted out to men, or indeed, to anyone for any other kind of healthcare.

We don't accept it for anything else, and we shouldn't accept it for abortion care.

Opponents of the legislation (in the NSW upper house, predictably, Fred Nile) claim the law will impede the exercise of free speech. Free speech is an important right for progressives to defend. Historically, legislation curtailing political rights of bigots and haters has been used to attack the left. Freedom of speech is not a right well codified in law in Australia. The High Court has ruled that the constitution contains an implied protection of free speech, but defines it narrowly in terms of participation in activities connected to parliamentary democracy. But clinic safe zone legislation does nothing to stop the development of public political campaigns anywhere apart from in the vicinity of the clinic. But by preventing behaviour intended to stigmatise abortion, and the harassment and intimidation of people accessing clinics, such legislation can promote the privacy, dignity and safety of women and people needing abortion, and the friends, family and staff who support and serve them.

Clinic safety legislation should be enacted and enforced. Whether pregnancy termination is being contemplated because a wanted pregnancy has been found to be unable to survive, because an unplanned pregnancy is unwanted, or for any of the complicated reasons that can bring a pregnant person to an abortion clinic, no-one should be faced with the public shaming and humiliation that go on outside services at the moment.

In NSW and Qld, such protective measures, if introduced, will have an immediate impact on improving the wellbeing of those who access abortion services. However, such measures alone won't be enough to improve access to abortion, while the procedure remains on the criminal codes of those states and generally inaccessible through the public hospital system. To be safe and accessible, abortion needs to be legal and available in locations close to where people live. Last year, the NSW upper house rejected a bill to remove abortion from the criminal code, while a similar bill was withdrawn from the Queensland parliament without even being debated. The campaigns for abortion law reform in both states remain active despite these setbacks, and last week's victory in the NSW upper house can only be a further motivation for the campaign to make free, safe, legal abortion accessible on demand without apology.

Outside clinic in Midland, WA, February 2018. Would not be permitted under clinic protection legislation.

Outside an abortion service and advocacy conference, Brisbane, August 2018. Would not be affected by clinic protection legislation.

"Yes" victory in Irish abortion referendum

As the results of the Irish abortion referendum were announced on May 26th, scenes of celebration were shared around the world. The "yes" vote to repeal the constitutional ban on abortion had registered a smashing majority of 66.4%. Voter turnout was 54.51% - higher than for the 2015 marriage equality campaign and a record for any referendum in Ireland.

With 1,429,981 votes for repeal, campaign group Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) Ireland points out, more votes were cast to remove the amendment than were cast to insert the ban into the constitution in 1983.

The 8th amendment, as it was known, recognised a right to life of the foetus equal to the right to life of the woman or pregnant person.

Under the ban, abortion has been subject to a comprehensive ban, even in cases of risk to the woman's health, conception from rape, and when fatal foetal anomaly have been diagnosed. Thousands of women travel abroad every year to obtain abortions in the UK and Europe, and thousands more risk the 14 year gaol term undergoing illegal abortion using imported medications without medical supervision.

The death of migrant dentist Savita Halappanava in 2012 from septic miscarriage was attributed to the ban, as legal uncertainty led to delays emptying her uterus while the foetal heartbeat was detected, even though her miscarriage was deemed inevitable and became the cause of her overwhelming infection.

Her death became the trigger for legislative reform and the push to repeal the constitutional ban.

After a series of public mobilisations, the issue was referred to the Irish Citizens' Assembly, which recommended a referendum to repeal the constitutional amendment and allow the government to make laws to regulate abortion.

Before the referendum, the government announced that if the amendment was repealed, they would introduce legislation to allow abortion freely up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, for medical reasons (with two doctors' agreement) up to 24 weeks, and for fatal foetal anomaly after that. They have pledged to introduce the legislation this year, and plan to establish services in Ireland in 2019.

The No campaign mobilised with images of foetuses, attempts to equate foetal life with the lives of children and pregnant women, misleading advertising claiming the government's proposed legislation would allow abortion up to six months, and claims to "love both" - arguing for adoption instead of abortion.

A statement issued by the Adoption Rights Alliance noted the offensive irony of the No camp slogan "Love Both". As advocates for those adopted under Ireland's closed, forced adoption system, they pointed out that none of the adopted people they are in contact with over two decades have ever been offered support by anti-abortion organisations. Similarly, it was anti-abortion crusaders who persecuted pregnant women and gave cover to the forced incarceration of unmarried pregnant women and girls (and those considered "at risk" of pregnancy outside marriage) in the Magdalene Laundries and other institutions - where they were forced to give birth and relinquish their babies for adoption.

Adopted People for Yes was one of the 97 groups that joined the umbrella group "Together for Yes," by the time the referendum was held. It emphasised compassion and care for women and pregnant people facing crisis pregnancy.

The Yes campaign was marked by stalls, fundraisers, rallies, public statements and social media outreach. Perhaps most striking was the scale of mobilising of volunteers to doorknock canvassing for votes. The Yes volunteers knocked on 500,000 doors, or about a third of all households in the country.

In public and in private, people facing crisis pregnancy told their stories of stigma and isolation traveling for abortion care; of taking medications to induce abortion without medical assistance; and of being denied care in their home country, when faced with a diagnosis of severe foetal health problems that would inevitably result in stillbirth or the death of the baby if born.

“Today’s results show what we in ARC have seen around the country for the last 6 years – that the people of Ireland were hungry for change. The grassroots community-led organising at the heart of ARC has been a huge part of the campaign’s appeal across all groups and communities. We especially acknowledge the work of migrants who did not have a vote and who were disproportionately affected by the Eighth, as well as the many trans and non-binary people affected.”

“This result is bigger than Ireland: we know the world watches us as abortion access is being eroded in other places. Ireland now has the opportunity to be a beacon to the world in terms of respect for people who can get pregnant.”

Close to the republic, calls have already been made for the UK to liberalise abortion access in Northern Ireland, where the issue has been devolved to the parliament of the six counties, and remains banned by an 1861 law. With the power-sharing agreement in a shambles and no executive government in Belfast for over a year, the demand is being made for the UK government to bring abortion law into line with the rest of the UK. A rally of hundreds launching the campaign was held in Belfast on May 28.

Another rally was held the same day in Brisbane. Buoyed by the victory in Ireland, sixty people gathered to call for repeal of Queensland's abortion laws - also modelled on the UK 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act.

Vigil for Savita Halappanavar, outside Irish consulate, London, 28 October 2017