High Court to deliver ruling in challenge to safe access zones around abortion clinics
Today at 10:15am the High Court of Australia will issue its judgment in response to a challenge to Victoria and Tasmania’s safe access zone laws.
Safe access zones create a 150 metre buffer zone outside health clinics that provide abortion services. They are designed to protect the privacy, safety, dignity and wellbeing of patients and staff. Prohibited behaviour inside a zone includes harassment and intimidation, communicating in a way that is reasonably likely to cause distress or anxiety, and filming without consent.
The High Court has been asked to determine whether a provision in the Victorian laws and a provision in the Tasmanian laws are consistent with the implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution.
The Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic, Human Rights Law Centre and Castan Centre for Human Rights were each granted permission to intervene in the Victorian proceedings.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Date: Wednesday 10 April
Time: 1:30PM AEST
Location: The Forecourt of the Federal Court of Australia, 305 William St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Speakers
Dr Susie Allanson, Clinical Psychologist - formerly at the Fertility Control Clinic
Jennifer Kanis, Principal Lawyer, Maurice Blackburn (lawyers for the Clinic)
Adrianne Walters, Senior Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre
Tania Penovic, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law
Media contact:
Michelle Bennett, Human Rights Law Centre: 0419 100 519
Paddy Murphy, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers: 0409 297 391
