Last week, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) announced its submission on the General Scheme of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services (Safe Access Zones)) Bill 2022, a government proposed law to limit assembly within 100 metres of abortion providers.
Within, it fully supports the government in its efforts to curtail assembly, and goes so far as to recommend the government increase the maximum custodial sentence proposed for offenders who seek to try to persuade, influence or harass those seeking abortion, within 100 metres of a service provider. The same was proposed in the UK by now-suspended Labour MP Rupa Huq who in September proposed an amendment for a two year jail sentence for offering support to women outside abortion clinics.
