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The establishment of buffer zones to keep protesters away from Victorian abortion clinics looks certain to become law, after the State Government confirmed it will support the move.
Key points:
- Government supports move to introduce abortion safe access zone
- Fiona Patten's private member's bill seeks to establish 150m zone around clinics
- The Government will introduce its own bill, based on the private member's bill
Sex Party MP Fiona Patten introduced a private member's bill to Parliament's Upper House, calling for a 150-metre safe access zone around all clinics providing a pregnancy termination.
It follows claims pro-life protesters regularly harass and approach women as they attend the clinics.
The Government will introduce its own bill to the Lower House, based largely on Fiona Patten's bill, but with some changes to the bill's technical detail.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy praised Ms Patten's hard work and advocacy on the issue.
"This will be Fiona's bill, largely reflected and represented in the Government bill," she said.
"We just have some of the boring enforceability and administrative issues to make sure we get it right."
Ms Hennessy said there could be changes to the size of the proposed buffer zone, as well as the penalties originally suggested which included up to a year in prison.
"We're going to be consulting with the Department of Justice and Regulation about the exact penalty," she said.
"We know we need to get penalties commensurate to other public nuisance offences.
"We need to have penalties that serve as a deterrent but also congruent or rationally similar to the other penalties we have in similar legislation."
Ms Hennessy said the new bill would be introduced to Parliament by the end of the year.
Fiona Patten supports Government bill
Ms Patten said she was comfortable with any changes that might be made to the her original bill.
"I suspect the bill that we will finally see at the end of this year will be something that's robust, but also meets the initial intention of my bill," she said.
"The art of politics is an art of compromise and this enables us to get the best possible outcomes for the women accessing those services."
The Greens will support the Government's new bill, but if the Coalition opposes it, it will need the support of at least one other crossbencher besides Ms Patten to pass the Upper House.
Ms Patten said she had strong indications from other crossbenchers that the bill would be supported.
"[Most of the crossbench] is very supportive of the main objective of the bill, so I have no doubt that this will get majority support when it comes for a vote," she said.
DLP crossbencher Rachel Carling-Jenkins will oppose the bill.
The clinic said the protesters were outside six days a week, and their presence and behaviour was often upsetting to women accessing the facility.
Pro-life campaigners have criticised the buffer zone proposal, saying it will impede their freedom of speech and right to peaceful protest.
Topics: abortion, state-parliament, parliament, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, melbourne-3000, vic
First posted