By The Newsroom
4th Jan 2026
A woman currently appealing a conviction for conducting an illegal protest inside a hospital’s ‘safe access zone’ is due to appear in court on fresh charges.
Claire Brennan is due to appear in Coleraine Magistrates’ Court on Monday to be charged with three offences of “doing an act inside a safe access zone” on three specific dates in September, October and November last year.
Apr 5, 2025
BBC
A woman convicted of breaching an abortion clinic protection zone has said she will continue her "fight for free speech".
Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £20,000 for two charges of breaking a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). The anti-abortion campaigner held a sign reading "Here to talk, if you want" outside a clinic in Bournemouth on two days in March 2023.
The Canadian Press
January 31, 2025
A new Manitoba law restricting protests near clinics and hospitals where abortions are performed is to take effect Saturday.
The NDP government introduced a bill last year that creates buffer zones of between 50 and 150 metres around such health facilities, as well as the homes of abortion providers.
Inside those zones, people are not allowed to block access, attempt to dissuade people from getting an abortion or harass or intimidate individuals.
Apr 22, 2024
A proposed law to ban protests outside abortion clinics is necessary to ensure women are free of intimidation, a Holyrood committee has said.
Green Party MSP Gillian Mackay last year introduced a member's bill at the Scottish Parliament that would block any protests taking place within 200m (656ft) of clinics.
1st February 2024
By James McCarthy & PA Media, BBC News
A preacher who protested outside an abortion clinic has been convicted of breaching a protection order.
Stephen Green, 72, held a sign bearing a religious verse in a part of Ealing, west London, covered by a public spaces protection order (PSPO) last February.
Outside the MSI Reproductive Choices Clinic, it was the first such zone to be introduced in the UK. Green's conviction was welcomed by campaigners who said people were fed-up of seeing behaviour like his.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68174047
15th December 2023
Christian campaigners have lost a legal challenge to an order banning prayers outside an abortion clinic.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council imposed a "safe zone" in 2022 around the clinic in Bournemouth.
Campaigners Livia Tossici-Bolt and Christian Concern argued the Public Spaces Protection Order was illegal.
However, two High Court judges said any interference with human rights was justified by the "legitimate aim" of protecting the clinic's clients.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-67731454
Hamish McNeilly
Aug 01 2023
Sam Sharpe continues to hold a counter protest over anti abortion protesters who gather outside Dunedin Hospital on Fridays. Dunedin’s famous ‘Dicks guy’, will soon be a dicks guy no longer.
Sam Sharpe has famously led a counter-protest against abortion protesters near an abortion clinic at Dunedin Hospital every Friday for nearly ten years.
Continued: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/gender-and-society/132656626/big-win-for-dunedins-dicks-guy
Anti-abortion protests will be banned outside abortion clinics in Northern Ireland by September 2023, the Department of Health has said.
5 JUL 2023
The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023 was one of the last pieces of legislation approved by MLAs shortly before the Northern Ireland Assembly dissolved at the end of March 2022.
Its enactment was delayed after the bill was referred to the UK Supreme Court by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland amid concerns that it represented a disproportionate interference with the rights of protesters under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Oct 18, 2022
Plans to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics in England and Wales have been backed by MPs.
Under the proposed law, harassing, obstructing or interfering with any woman attending an abortion clinic would become a criminal offence.
Protesters found guilty of breaching 150-metre buffer zones around clinics would face up to six months in jail.
Saskatoon / 650 CKOM
May 16, 2021
The Saskatchewan NDP wants to ban pro-life protests near abortion clinics.
Its Women’s Status Critic, Jennifer Bowes introduced a bill that would limit anti-abortion protests inside a “bubble” of 150 metres from any facility that performs abortion.
Continued: https://www.ckom.com/2021/05/16/ndp-tables-bill-to-ban-pro-life-protests-near-abortion-clinics/
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