Protester behaviour that drew national attention to Albury’s Fertility Control Clinic in 2016 continues to this day, a rally on Saturday heard.
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The clinic’s anaesthetist David Corbett described recent incidents involving anti-abortion protesters, who have reportedly given plastic foetus-shaped dolls to women in the past.
“The garbage truck was coming up the street, emptying yellow bins, and they were down on their knees with beads, almost giving the impression we throw babies into the garbage,” he said.
“A month ago one of the protestors rang the police and said ‘You’ve got to come, they’re murdering a young girl down here’.
“Every woman who comes to the clinic is harassed.”
NSW Labor MP Penny Sharpe echoed the trauma endured by women and staff at clinics across the state.
“It’s not OK to have your number plate photographed at work, and to be filmed going in and out,” she said.
“My safe access zone bill is for staff too.
“I’m working very hard across the parliament to find members who are willing to say ‘Enough is enough’.”
Ms Sharpe told the rally she hoped her private member’s bill banning certain behaviour within 150 metres of abortion clinics would be voted on before June.
“I think we’re on the cusp of getting the change we need,” she said.
Saturday’s Reproductive Rights Rally was “not an abortion debate”, Border advocate Kylie Virtue said.
“We need safe access zones … for no other reason than that its unacceptable to bully and harass someone who is legally accessing the treatment they have a lawful right to,” she said.
“Why are the group responsible provided with permits on a weekly basis to harass these women?
“The presence alone of people gathering out the front of the clinic is enough to intimidate and put psychological pressure on the women accessing the clinic.”
Virginia-Mason Lee spoke of first pushing for change in the 1970s living in rural Queensland, when abortion was completely illegal.
“Over many years we then eventually saw there were changes and those changes meant we then had a clinic in Brisbane and Townsville,” she said.
“But outside every clinic I’ve been involved with, there’s always been a group of people whose minds are not really there for the benefit of women’s health.
“I may not agree with the rights of certain people … (but) I don’t have a right, that gives me the right to stamp on someone else’s rights.”
Albury Deputy Mayor Amanda Cohn said politicians’ neutrality on the issue was unacceptable.
“I ran for local council and thought I could finally make a difference and I was really disappointed to come up against key people in our community, key decision-makers who didn’t want to be seen taking a side on what they thought was a controversial issue,” she said.
“The stand we walk past is the standard we accept.”
A statement from Member for Albury Greg Aplin was read to the rally, organised by the group ‘We Need Exclusion Zones Right Here Right Now’.
“Harassment of women contemplating or undertaking a termination procedure is unacceptable,” he said.
“Permits are required and enforced, councils do have power to control behaviour taken on the streets of our cities.
“Reports of harassment … are investigated by the Albury police.
“I have taken conflicting views on social issues to parliament, for that is the role of a parliamentary representative.
“It is unfortunate this particular issue has been dogged by occasional political stunts.”
Mr Aplin told The Border Mail he had not discussed Ms Sharpe’s bill with the Liberal Party and did not say how he would vote.