Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones), REFERENCE by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland [2022] UKSC 32 (07 December 2022)
Citation:Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones), REFERENCE by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland [2022] UKSC 32 (07 December 2022).
Rule of thumb:If you heckle or protest against a woman going into a clinic to have an abortion who is in the abortion access zone, is this a criminal offence? Yes, this is a strict liability criminal offence and the UKSC has affirmed that this law stands and does not violate a protestor’s human rights.
Background facts:
The basic facts of this case were extremely simple - the Northern Irish Parliament proposed a bill for the Northern Irish Assembly to pass into an Act, Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill, and clause 5(2)(a) of this Bill proposed to make it a strict liability criminal offence to protest in any way towards any woman who was going in and out of an abortion clinic. A challenged was brought to clause 5(2)(a) by pro-life campaigners on the basis that making a protest against this a crime would largely violate the ‘Article 9 Right to Freedom of Conscience, Thought and Religion’.
Parties argued
The pro-life campaigners argued that it was their scientific that abortion was murder, and they sought to argue it violated their Article 9 rights in seeking to protest against women doing this in and around the abortion, in what was the most effective place to make these protests. The Northern Irish Government argued that this was a measure which was supported by the democracy and did not intrude so far upon protest rights that it was a violation of human rights – rather it was a balanced measure.
Judgment:
The Court affirmed that this criminal law did not violate protestors’ Article 9 rights. The Court further paved for the criminal law in Northern Ireland to be that if anti-abortion protestors protest against any women in what is called a ‘safe zone’ in the vicinity of an abortion clinic, then they will be prosecuted with a strict liability criminal charge, which will be virtually impossible to defend.
Ratio-decidendi:
‘The right of women in Northern Ireland to access abortion services has now been established in law through the processes of democracy… A legal system which enabled those who had lost the political debate to undermine the legislation permitting abortion, by relying on freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, would in practice align the law with the values of the opponents of reform and deprive women of the protection of rights which have been legislatively enacted. For all the reasons which I have explained, I conclude that clause 5(2)(a) of the Bill is not incompatible with the Convention rights…’, Lord Reed
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.