Supreme Court upholds safe spaces legislation banning protests outside abortion clinics

The Supreme Court has today upheld the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill, clause 5(2)(a) of which seeks to prohibit any act done with the intention of influencing those accessing abortion services or which have that effect. The Bill was passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly but referred to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, who argued that it breached Articles 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion), 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly) ECHR. The effect of the Bill being incompatible with the ECHR would be that it is outside the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The judgment can be found here.

The case has been reported on the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent.

David Blundell KC and Yaaser Vanderman acted for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.