Women’s Health Goulburn North East executive officer Susie Reid said such change was needed to ensure staff and patients could safely access reproductive health services.

Ms Reid has been vocal in her opposition to protests outside the Albury abortion clinic in East Albury.

Her group wants NSW to follow the Victorian Parliament’s lead over a bill to amend the Victorian Health and Wellbeing Act to create exclusion zones.

The Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic last week lost a Supreme Court bid to force Melbourne Council to stop protests outside its East Melbourne premises.

The Helpers of God's Precious Infants group gathers outside both the East Melbourne and Albury clinics to try to stop women getting abortions.

While disappointed, Albury’s Rights to Privacy group was buoyed by the introduction into the Victorian Parliament by Sex Party MP Fiona Patten  of a bill creating buffer zones.

The Women’s Health group said it did not dispute people’s right to protest, but this did not mean protesters had a right to harass or obstruct women from accessing their legal right to medical services and privacy.

Ms Reid said it should be done at a distance from health services.

“North East and Hume women attending reproductive health appointments in Albury experience harassment from anti-choice protesters when they are most vulnerable,” she said.

“We want the NSW State Government to follow what is happening in Victorian Parliament and stop the on-going threat of loss of privacy and harassment by making an exclusion zone.”

Ms Reid urged Albury residents who supported such an exclusion zone to contact Albury MP Greg Aplin “to tell him it’s unacceptable women and staff cannot access medical treatment without being harassed”.

“Rural women already face delays for health care and without an exclusion zone it makes accessing these services harder,” she said.

“Imagine arriving at a health service as a patient or staff member and being subjected to a barrage of negative comments about your medical appointment or work as you enter the clinic.”

Ms Reid said that at a time when Victoria was calling for an end to violence against women, “allowing continued harassment and intimidation of women in public is a double standard that must be challenged”.