Monday, April 22, 2019
Irish Prime Minister Admits Exclusion Zones Undermine Pro-Life Free Speech
Responding to Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly in the Dáil today on the issue of exclusion zones outside abortion facilities, the Taoiseach confirmed that the proposed new law was running into difficulties around issues to do with the curtailment of “free speech” and the right to “peacefully protest”.
Leo Varadkar told the Dáil: “We are running into real difficulties around restricting peaceful protest and restricting free speech.”
The Taoiseach also conceded that in placing a ban on peaceful protest, “we do enter a difficult space in a democracy when you decide that certain opinions can’t be held, certain types of protests can’t happen.”
The Taoiseach continued: “In a democracy, if you’re going to restrict free speech and if you’re going to restrict the right to protest, you need to be on very solid ground.”
Commenting on the Taoiseach’s remarks, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson, Maeve O’Hanlon said:
“I welcome the Taoiseach’s admission that peaceful protest and free speech would be undermined by the introduction of exclusion zone legislation. I hope his remarks are sincere and that he’s not turning into a civil libertarian until the local elections are out of the way"
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2 comments:
There's "peaceful protest," and then there's "disruption," and "intimidation." It's always important that disruption and intimidation not be confused with peaceful protest, and that when limits are placed on time and location of peaceful protests, they are tightly bound to the interests of the state. In America, we've had exclusion zones for years - but the zone size has been under constant litigation, and the courts have ruled that you can't block access to an abortion clinic, or intimidate those who would make use of such a clinic, as that violates the rights of the clinic and the patients. On the other hand, you can't put the protesters 1000 feet from the clinic because that makes the protests essentially mute. It's a long, drawn out process to find the balancing points.
Australia has just seen the successful upholding of exclusion zones outside abortion clinics - or, as I like to call them - free-speech free zones, ie it is a zone that is free from free-speech.
At least the Irish PM is honest enough to admit that they constitute a fetter on free speech and that deciding where to draw the boundaries is not easy.
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