Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's reply has left me with many questions. I am surprised at the extent of it. I will start by keeping it logical. Not all of what is in this Bill is equally bad. Section 2 states that a person shall not, without lawful authority, in a safe access zone, engage in conduct that is likely to obstruct or impede another person from accessing a relevant healthcare premises.I can support that. Any reasonable person would. Nobody is in favour of anybody being obstructed or impeded.

Let us be clear: what is effected here is subsection (2) of section 2, which is that "a person shall not, in a [so-called] safe access zone ... communicate material to the public or a section of the public in a manner that is likely to influence the decision of another person in relation to availing of, or providing, termination of pregnancy services". Therefore, if somebody on a university campus or who is within 100 m, or does not know they are within 100 m, of a facility where people can access abortion has a placard that says abortion is wrong or "Thinking of abortion; we can help" or "Abortion stops a beating heart" or "Did you know that the beginnings of a heartbeat are developed at six weeks" or any other factual idea that is intended just to prompt further consideration of this issue, or even if that placard has something that might communicate a message to a person in support of an abortion, such as "Abortion is a woman's choice" or such phrases like that, either side of the argument can be caught by this legislation, which is, no matter how you attempt to slice and dice it, a clamping down on free speech. We are not just talking about obstructing or impeding but about communicating material to the public or a section of the public. It does not have to be directed at anybody or at any particular moment or situation.

We need to be honest. There is no need for this legislation for one very simple reason: we do not have abortion clinics in Ireland. Corruptly, the Government of the day introduced abortion in a way that has corrupted the medical profession by putting direct or indirect pressure on doctors to be involved-----