Laws that proposes a treatment worse than the illness ought to give Parliamentarians pause.
Usually, we consider the Public Order Invoice within the context of eco-warriors supergluing themselves to the M25 or to frames of portraits within the Nationwide Gallery or, nearer to residence, across the Speaker’s chair in Parliament. These occasions trigger critical disruption to civil life and to individuals’s companies, and rightly ought to be outlawed.
It’s irritating and disappointing then that Rupa Huq MP has capitalised on the fascinating goals of the Public Order Invoice to desk an undesirable modification, looking for to criminalise way more harmless – and lawful – actions. To complicate issues additional, Stella Creasy MP has now turn out to be the modification’s sponsor on the eleventh hour.
Her modification would introduce ‘buffer’ zones round abortion clinics which goal peaceable demonstrators. Particularly, she needs to make it unlawful for anybody to intervene with a call to entry or present an abortion if they’re inside a 150-metre radius of an abortion clinic. The modification defines “interferes with” so broadly it applies to these merely expressing an opinion or trying to tell somebody about abortion providers.
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Equally problematic, the buffer zone extends to property inside public view, operating the danger that conversations about abortion in your entrance backyard (if coated by the buffer zone) may very well be criminalised.
As a Parliamentarian with an obligation to behave within the public curiosity, I’ve three fundamental issues with this proposal.
First, legal guidelines are already in place to guard ladies from harassment once they attend appointments at abortion clinics. Ought to vigils or provides of assist cross the edge into harassing or disruptive behaviour, police have a number of avenues of recourse together with the power to concern Public Area Safety Orders and powers underneath the Native Authorities Act 1972, Public Order Act 1986, the Prison Justice Act 1988, Safety from Harassment Act 1997, and the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Moreover, the Police, Crimes, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – which grew to become legislation in April – permits police to intervene when demonstrations create a critical disruption.
Secondly, the modification is poorly drafted, and so dangers extending the felony legislation’s attain the place such legal guidelines shouldn’t tread. As I noticed earlier, the modification may criminalise something from merely expressing an opinion outdoors an abortion clinic to conversations between neighbours who dwell within the buffer zone. Are medical doctors who dwell within the buffer zone going to be criminalised for having a dialog about abortion on their driveway if they’re in public view? What of midwifery schools positioned within the buffer zone – may they be criminalised for instructing college students in regards to the deserves and dangers of abortion? Folks praying peacefully may face time in jail whereas obnoxious counter-protestors may stroll free.
It attracts no distinction between actions that trigger hurt and people with which individuals merely disagree. This is a crucial line to attract as a result of the blunt power of felony legislation shouldn’t be utilized calmly or inappropriately. Do we actually need to begin criminalising individuals whom we merely disagree with?
The buffer zone itself can also be arbitrary. As Rupa Huq herself conceded within the Committee Stage debate on this concern, “The space needn’t be 150 metres. We simply took that from Ealing[‘s censorship zone], as a result of that’s the place the principle street is…”. As such, this blanket ban overlooks the distinctive circumstances of every clinic and what would represent a proportionate response in each case.
Crucially, it additionally stands in opposition to different provisions of the Public Order Invoice which don’t embrace blanket bans round protest actions.
Lastly, the modification carries critical – and unintended – implications for freedom of speech. We delight ourselves on Britain’s longstanding custom of liberalism and openness which necessitates the power to problem concepts, debate controversial opinions, and interact in protests. Criminalising such actions contradicts this custom and is untenable in a free society.
For these (and different) causes, successive Residence Secretaries have held the view that buffer zones are a disproportionate response to primarily passive actions, particularly when the police have already got powers to guard public security and curtail protest actions that trigger hurt to others.
When medical doctors swear the Hippocratic oath they promise, first, to do no hurt. Parliamentarians ought to administer a dose of that medication in public life and vote in opposition to this modification.
Scott Benton is the Conservative MP for Blackpool South.
