Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow we are due to debate the Second Stage of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023. This legislation has been rushed through pre-legislative scrutiny and will be likely to be unconstitutional. Exclusion zones around abortion clinics exist in other countries, which provide the model for this proposed legislation. The logic behind these zones is to ensure that women entering an abortion clinic are not subject to potential harassment from protestors outside. However, because the Irish abortion system does not operate out of specific abortion clinics, but rather within GP clinics, hospitals and family planning centres, importing this same model wholesale into Ireland strikes me as unworkable.

To ensure anonymity when availing of such services, this legislation will not highlight the specific service sites where termination of pregnancy services are actively provided. Therefore, we must place a 100 m exclusion zone around each premises, irrespective of whether they are performing abortions or not. Would then, for example, the large-scale, annual and public event, March for Life, be prohibited from passing down certain streets in Dublin because there is a GP clinic in the vicinity of 100 m, which may or may not provide abortions?

From the perspective of a person who is minded to protest abortion, the proposals have sweeping consequences which raise questions of personal rights under Article 40 of the Constitution. The explanatory memorandum to the Bill states that: "It is not intended to be a general prohibition on expression or assembly or protest in relation to termination of pregnancy services." However, the Bill subsequently makes provision for enforcement and the creation of offences in relation to such conduct. As there is no way to identify whether someone who is entering a maternity hospital or GP clinic is there to have an abortion, this proposed legislation will effectively discriminate against people of a particular ethical viewpoint who are simply assembling in a public area, which may happen to be within one of these 100 m zones. Will the Taoiseach explain how the Government can claim to uphold civil liberties while bringing in a law overtly discriminating against citizens who are expressing their views on a particular issue and who unwittingly happen to be within one of these expansive exclusion zones?

See this speech in context