Health committee paves way for abortion safe access zone laws

A cross-party group of senators, TDs, and campaigners from Together for Safety in support of the Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Bill outside Leinster House last April. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Oireachtas health committee has paved the way for the introduction of legislation to allow for safe access zones outside hospitals and GP surgeries that provide abortion services.

The laws, which will ban protests outside facilities that provide abortion services, had been referred to the health committee for scrutiny.

Under the proposed laws, conduct that intentionally or reasonably influences the decision of a person either availing of or providing termination services will be banned within the zones.

Anti-abortion protesters could be fined or jailed for holding demonstrations within 100m of healthcare facilities that provide termination services under the new legislation brought forward by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

However, members of the committee had raised concerns about a number of elements of the proposed law, including that a person could not be arrested for protesting outside a healthcare facility unless they had received a prior warning from gardaí.

The committee had questioned if it would be possible under the current system to keep a record of these warnings.

Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt wrote to the committee after members had sought assurances around this aspect and a number of concerns over the new laws.

Garda warning

Mr Watt said a precondition that a person must have received a Garda warning before being arrested is "appropriate".

He said it is intended that there will be a requirement that gardaí maintain a record of these warnings and their content.

"Engagement with the gardaí on how this can best be captured in order to give maximum effect to the policy intentions of the legislation is ongoing by the department," he said.

Mr Watt also told committee members that the Department of Health is "satisfied" that the offence of harassment is already significantly covered under existing law.

The Together for Safety campaign group had written to the committee over delays to safe access zone legislation.

“We are now five years being told that safe access zones are imminent,” the letter says.

“Five years of being harassed, abused, and intimidated as we go to medical appointments. Five years of our privacy being violated, our grief manipulated, our medical decisions commented on, our losses politicised.”

The letter, which was signed by Together for Safety co-chairs Karen Sugrue and Yvie Murphy, added: "We implore you and your colleagues on the Health Committee to use all the powers at your disposal to push for extreme urgency with the safe access zone legislation that we have been promised so many times — and five years on we are still pleading for."

It had been initially intended that safe access zones would be introduced in tandem with the rollout of abortion services in 2019. However, the measure was delayed due to legal concerns and other issues.

Mr Donnelly hoped to have the new laws introduced before the end of last year; however, the legislation was subjected to detailed scrutiny by the health committee.