HSE warns of ‘challenges’ to enforcement of safe access zone laws outside maternity units

The Health Service Executive has warned of “challenges” to enforcing proposed new legislation for safe access zones outside facilities providing abortions.

In a submission to the Oireachtas health committee, it questioned how harassment by anti-abortion protesters can be proved and how the health facility can be assured that gardaí will be available in a timely fashion.

The management of “repeat offenders”, and how to prove that a protester has knowingly encroached on a safe access zone, also need careful consideration, it says.

Since the introduction of the abortion service in 2019, there have been “frequent and sustained” anti-abortion protests outside many of the maternity hospitals providing terminations, the submission states. In Dublin, these protests have occurred “weekly, if not daily”.

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“This is a practice that we have seen replicated in other regions at various intervals. This activity includes the display of religious images and messaging, graphic images of foetuses and in some instances physical and verbal aggression. There have also been targeted protests outside GP surgeries.

“The detrimental impact of this behaviour cannot be overstated … These anti-abortion protests, whether passive or active have a significant psychological impact and extend to those availing of services other than abortion services, including but not limited to, instances of pregnancy loss, stillbirth and early neonatal death.”

In addition to service users, staff have reported occasions when they felt fearful on entering and exiting workplaces “directly related to the proximity and intensity of some anti-abortion protests”.

“It is hugely distressing for these staff and personnel, who have committed to providing a safe, high-quality termination of pregnancy service to be exposed to intimidation whilst going about their work. Access to abortion care will remain vulnerable in an environment where providers are threatened, harassed or subjected to intimidating behaviours.”

Under the proposed laws, anti-abortion protests will be prohibited with 100 metres of any facility that could be providing access to terminations, rather than just those that actually do so at present.

Currently, 413 GPs out of about 3,000 GPs are providing termination services, as are 11 out of 19 maternity units.

In its submission, the Irish Family Planning Association enumerated the protests held outside its premises, including “a man banging at the clinic window and shouting aggressively at staff inside, prayer groups and vigils, display of graphic and religious imagery, verbal harassment, physical assault, and photographing and videoing staff and clients as they enter and lead the clinic”.

Both the IFPA and the National Women’s Council called for references in the legislation to “women” to be replaced by “women and pregnant people”.

The proposed legislation will not affected the right of health service staff to protest or take industrial action, the Oireachtas health committee heard on Wednesday.

Industrial action by staff is unlikely to fall within the scope of the proposed legislation as it could not reasonably be expected to influence a person’s access to services, according to Department of Health officials.

Caitriona Mason, of the Department’s bioethics unit, said its legal advice was that protests would not be captured by the measure. However, engagement with the attorney general’s office is continuing and if any doubt arises, a specific provision allowing workers to protest may be put into the legislation.

Officials said they hoped to have the legislation passed by the end of the year, but subsequent legal challenges are anticipated.