A RALLY will be held at QEII Square on Saturday, in a bid to show Albury MLA Greg Aplin the amount of community support for abortion law reform.
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A series of five-minute speeches will take place from noon to 12.30pm surrounding the topic.
NSW MLC Mahreen Faruqi, who intends to introduce a bill to NSW parliament on the matter, will be one of several speakers at the event.
Also appearing behind the microphone will be Women's Health NSW chief executive Denele Crozier, Greens candidate for Farrer Doctor Amanda Cohn, Indi Labor candidate Eric Kerr and ACT Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury.
Dr Cohn said the bill would decriminalise abortion in NSW and create 150-metre privacy zones around abortion clinics.
“This is a very controversial issue locally,” she said.
“When you speak to people almost everyone agrees patients should be given privacy at the Englehardt Street clinic. A few people disagree and are very loud and vocal about it.
“A similar law has already passed in Victoria, ACT and Tasmania, so we aren’t proposing anything radical, we are just trying to bring NSW up to speed.”
The last pro-choice rally was held in Albury in 2014.
Dr Faruqi's bill will be the first abortion decriminalisation bill introduced in NSW.
If it passes, it would also require doctors to disclose any objections to abortion to patients at the beginning of consultations.
“We know the clinic is regularly protested by a small religious group, they are approaching patients on their way in and out,” Dr Cohn said.
“Patients have reported they feel intimidated and upset by these people.
“People should have the right to protest abortion if they want to, but in a public place, not by approaching individual patients who are making a difficult decision.”
Albury surgeon Roland von Marburg, who opposes the introduction of legislation and has backed protests outside the clinic, said he had no plans to attend the rally.
He noted he was unlikely to get an invitation, so would not spend his Saturday morning at the event.
Mr Aplin, who declined an invitation to the event, said he would be in Sydney on Saturday.
He labelled it a Greens “political” rally in support of the motion.
“The bill is much wider than just exclusion zones, without knowing what’s in it, I can’t say if I support it,” Mr Aplin said.
The Border Mail understands the details of the bill will be made public before Saturday's rally and the debate has been set for June.
An application for use of QEII Square was approved under Albury Council's Street Activities policy.
This applies to any group that wishes to gather in a public place.
For more information on the rally, visit www.facebook.com/events/983884251660995.