This week, the Victorian Parliament will debate legislation seeking to establish safe access zones around abortion providers. The need for this legislation was highlighted by a recent Supreme Court case that found that existing laws are inadequate in dealing with the ongoing harassment of women accessing abortion services at the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic.
The legislation, if passed, will create a 150 metre zone around hospitals, GP Clinics and clinics that perform abortions. Within this zone, behaviour that harass and intimidates women seeking to access an abortion will be prohibited. It will also be illegal to film people without their consent within this zone.
For too long, women accessing abortion services have been subjected to verbal and psychological abuse, designed to discourage women from accessing abortion services. This abuse has included yelling, holding up images of foetuses, physical intimidation and, on occasion, violence.
Women have been filmed entering abortion clinics, and those recordings have been published on the internet. This abuse is designed to humiliate and shame women who are accessing a legal and legitimate medical procedure.
Abortion is an issue upon which people hold many different views and a small minority strongly oppose the practice of abortion. I don’t agree with those people, but they have a right to express their opposition to abortion. The appropriate place to express that opposition is outside the Parliament and directed at legislators, such as myself, who are elected to make decisions about Victoria’s laws with respect to abortion.
It is not appropriate to target women outside abortion providers. These women are accessing a lawful medical service. People have a right to access lawful medical services without having their privacy invaded.
In seeking to legislate to prevent this behaviour, we need to balance the rights of individual to protest and express a political opinion against the rights of women to privacy and dignity. The right to protest is a core human right, recognised in Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights. However, that right may be tempered where it impedes other rights and causes harm. Women have a right to medical privacy and have a right to access a legal health service without experiencing harassment and intimidation. It is not acceptable, in 2015, seven years after abortion was legalised in this State, that women still have to run a gauntlet of abuse in order to access this medical procedure.
This Bill follows the example set in Tasmania who introduced 150 metre Safe Access Zones around abortion providers in 2013. Similar zones also exist in States in the United States and Canada.
The importance of this legislation has been agreed by Members of Parliament across all parties, who have recognised the time has come to stop the harassment of women in this circumstance. I acknowledge Fiona Patten from the Australian Sex Party, who introduced a Private Members Bill on this issue some weeks ago. I have introduced a Government Bill on this issue because I am committed to ensuring it is supported by the Parliament and that it is drafted to stand the test of time.
Jill Hennessy is the state ALP member for Altona and Victorian Minister for Health
Website: www.jillhennessy.com.au
Twitter: @JillHennessyMP