Anti-abortion activists fail in legal challenge to scrap buffer zones
The High Court has thrown out a last-ditch legal challenge against laws that ban protesters from harassing patients and staff outside abortion clinics.
In a unanimous decision, the court rejected challenges by anti-abortion activists Kathleen Clubb and John Graham Preston against laws that have been introduced in Victoria and Tasmania.
Both legal bids were heard together although they applied to separate laws. The judgment was handed down in the High Court in Brisbane.
The court also rejected appeals by Ms Clubb and Mr Preston against convictions they received for breaching buffer zone laws.
The pair disputed the constitutional validity of the buffer zone legislation in Victoria and Tasmania, arguing the laws curbed their right to freedom of speech.
Laws preventing protesters from coming within 150 metres of abortion or fertility clinics were passed in 2015 in Victoria following a concerted campaign from Reason Party MP Fiona Patten.
Ms Clubb, a mother of 13 children, was convicted and fined $5000 in 2017 for handing a pamphlet to a couple outside an East Melbourne fertility clinic.
The rules also apply to hospitals, doctors’ clinics or any health service that performs abortions. Similar laws were introduced in Tasmania in 2013.
The Age has contacted Ms Clubb for comment.
Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Adrianne Walters said the court’s decision confirmed the importance of privacy, safety and equality in access to healthcare.
“With today’s decision, women in Victoria and Tasmania never again need to worry about being forced to run a gauntlet of abuse to access abortion care,” she said. “Safe access zones are here to stay.”
Ms Walters said anti-abortion protesters outside clinics caused distress, fear and anxiety for patients and staff.
She said women had a right to the same protections in other states.
“Right now women seeking reproductive healthcare in Western Australian and South Australia are being harassed by anti-abortionists because their governments have failed to protect them. There can be no excuse for delaying safe access zone laws.”