The Human Rights Law Centre has applied to provide expert advice to the high court while it considers a challenge to Victoria’s safe access zones around abortion clinics.

Laws took effect in Victoria in 2015 that made it illegal for anti-abortionists to protest within 150 metres of health and fertility clinics. The “safe access zone” laws were intended to protect health workers and their patients from being confronted and intimidated by protesters while seeking medical advice or getting medical treatment, including abortion.

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But the high court is to hear a case challenging the validity of the safe access zone laws in Victoria as well as Tasmania. The Victorian case has been brought by anti-abortionist Kathleen Clubb, who was the first person to be convicted of breaking Victoria’s safe access zone laws in 2016. She was fined $5,000 for communicating about abortion to a person attending the clinic in a manner “reasonably likely to cause distress or anxiety”.

On Friday, Adrianne Walters, a senior lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre, applied to provide expert assistance to the high court, saying the Victorian case raised questions about balancing the rights of women seeking access to medical care and the right to freedom of political communication.

“For too long, women in Victoria were subjected to abuse and intimidation when exercising their right to access lawful health services,” Walters said. “Since May 2016, safe access zones have ensured women have not had to run a gauntlet of abuse, harassment and intimidation when trying to see their doctor.”

'Safe zones' around abortion clinics don't threaten free speech, Victoria says Read more

Walters said free speech was not a licence to harm others with impunity.

“Our position is that Victoria’s safe access zone laws strike the right balance between the freedom of political communication and a woman’s right to privately and safely see her doctor,” she said.

Tasmania, Victoria, the ACT and the Northern Territory have laws authorising safe access zones around abortion clinics. The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has granted a conscience vote on a similar bill in the state, which on Thursday passed the legislative council and will soon be debated in the legislative assembly.

In its submission to the high court this month, the Victorian government warned that without safe access zones, some women who needed abortion services would decide “to delay or not to seek those services at all”. Submissions in the Victorian case close in June and in the Tasmanian case in August.