Pro-life supporters banned from protesting within clinic ‘buffer zone’

Anti-abortion protesters who have picketed a Melbourne abortion clinic daily for the last 25 years were absent this week as a law prohibiting their presence came into effect in Victoria, Australia.

According to the Guardian, the law that was passed last year was fast-tracked by the Australian government to protect health workers and their patients from harassment.

A man standing outside East Melbourne Fertility Clinic with a Bible and a rosary on Monday, when the law came into effect, was reportedly moved on by police. The new law prohibits abortion protesters from standing within 150 metres of abortion clinics.

“I think this legislation reflects that our society is coming to grips with being respectful to women and providing a safe environment for them, and a recognition of the whole gamut of violence against women that women have put up with for too long. This is a very clear message that such treatment of women will not be tolerated,” a clinical psychologist at the East Melbourne Fertility Clinic, Dr Susie Allanson, told Guardian Australia.

Last year the clinic took Melbourne city council to the Supreme Court, accusing it of failing to stop harassment from the protesters. The council lost the case, but the state parliament passed legislation following from the Australian Sex party leader, Fiona Patten.

In a statement, the Helpers of God's Precious Infants – a Catholic group who have led many of the anti-abortion protests in Melbourne – said that the new law imposed "draconian fines and possible jail terms for merely being present or offering a pamphlet to those who wish to receive it".

"It must be the first law of its kind in Victoria to criminalise peaceful activities", the group's spokeswoman, Tanya O'Brien, said.

According to another pro-life group Right to Life Australia in Victoria in 2010 366 babies over 20 weeks gestation were aborted, and in 2011, 378 babies were aborted at over 20 weeks - more than one baby per day.

There is currently a petition in the UK calling for buffer zones outside abortion clinics. If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it will be considered for debate in Parliament. The number of signatures currently stands at 10,000 and the petition closes in June.