Month: April 2019

Canberra, Australia, Apr 10, 2019 / 04:03 pm (CNA).- Australia’s high court on Wednesday threw out cases brought by pro-life activists challenging “buffer zone” laws in Victoria and Tasmania that bar any protests within 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) of a clinic or hospital that performs abortions.

In its April 10 decision, the court said that “given that the proscription leaves protesters free to conduct protests in relation to terminations outside the access zone, and that there is no evidence or other reason to accept that political protest against terminations outside the access zone is any less effective as a tool of political persuasion than protest within”, the buffer zones’ effect on political freedom was “negligible”.

The Victorian case was brought by Kathleen Clubb, a pro-life campaigner who was fined $5,000 in 2016 for “communicating about abortion” to a woman using an abortion clinic. The same year, Graham Preston was fined $3,000 for violating Tasmania’s similar buffer zone law.

Both plaintiffs argued that the laws violate their freedom of speech, since they prohibit political speech in a place where “communications on [abortion] are likely to occur and be most politically resonant.”

Clubb has said that “the prohibition applies whether or not discomfort is caused, and irrespective of the political significance of the communication in the circumstances” and that the appeal asked “whether a prohibition of that kind is compatible with a constitution which protects a freedom of political communication.”

Their lawyers had argued that because there are already laws in both states that protect against harassment and intimidation, the only further effect of the buffer zone laws is essentially to ban peaceful protest, and that Australia grants an implied freedom to political speech.

The court responded to the “implied freedom” argument saying that “it is no part of the implied freedom to guarantee a speaker an audience, much less a captive audience.”

It added that “the limited interference with the implied freedom is not manifestly disproportionate to the objectives of the communication prohibition. The burden on the implied freedom is limited spatially, and is confined to communications about abortions. There is norestriction at all on political communications outside of safe access zones. There is no discrimination between pro-abortion and anti-abortion communications. The purpose of the prohibition justifies a limitation on the exercise of free expression within that limited area.”

The governments of Victoria and Tasmania had contended that the laws are designed to allow women to access legal medical services.

The Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, New South Wales, and Queensland have similar buffer zone laws.

Buffer zones are being debated elsewhere, including in the United Kingdom. British Home Secretary Sajid Javid rejected proposals for buffer zones around abortion clinics throughout England and Wales as disproportionate in a Sept. 13, 2018 decision, after finding that most abortion protests are peaceful and passive. Local jurisdictions in England and Wales are able to establish their own buffer zones.

In the United States, three states have passed buffer zone laws: Colorado, Montana, and Massachusetts.

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Seoul, South Korea, Apr 10, 2019 / 11:09 am (CNA).- A pro-life doctor in South Korea is asking the international community for prayers, as the country’s constituional court considers whether to overturn its national abortion ban April 11.

Around 1,000 South Koreans rallied April 6 at a March for Life in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square ahead of the Constitutional Court ruling on the country’s abortion law, which currently prohibits abortion except in the case of rape, incest, genetic disease, or risk to the mother’s health.

“We have done our best to protect the life of fetuses. Now we can only pray for life,” Brother James Shin told CNA following the march.

Shin is a doctor and religious brother who provides medical care to the the poor and is active in South Korea’s pro-life movement.

Abortion advocates are calling on the court to allow abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and to add social and economic reasons to the exceptions allowing for abortion further into pregnancy, Shin said.

At least six judges on Korea’s nine-member Constitutional Court, due to rule April 11, are needed to declare the current law unconstitutional.

The Archbishop of Seoul, Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soojung, has been an outspoken advocate for the protection of unborn life in South Korea’s national debates.

“Human dignity cannot be decided by majority vote or judged by socioeconomic standards,” Cardinal Yeom said at a Mass for Catholic congressmen last month.

The cardinal also called for an end to the death penalty in Korea. “Human life is the most important and fundamental gift, which is a source of all human rights. The death penalty is a serious insult and sin against everyone’s right to life,” he said.

Abortion is known to be common in South Korea, despite being against the country’s criminal code. Women obtaining an illicit procedure can be sentenced to a year in prison or a fine of under $2,000, while doctors can be jailed for up to two years, but the law is rarely enforced.

About 340,000 abortions are performed annually in South Korea, while 440,000 child births are reported, according to a 2012 study published in the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family.

“In high-income South Korea … safe but clandestine procedures are widely available, despite a fairly restrictive law,” said the Guttmacher Institute, which provides research and analysis to “advance sexual and reproductive health and rights,” in a 2018 report.

The current case being considered by Korea’s Constitutional Court was brought to court by an obstetrician prosecuted for performing 69 illegal abortions between 2013 and 2015.

At his confirmation last September, the Chief Justice of Korea’s Constitutional Court, Yoo Nam-seok, said, “I think we need to consider ways to allow women’s termination of pregnancies in early stages for social and economic reasons through consultations with doctors and professionals,” the Korea Herald reported.

Brother Shin characterized the current cultural atmosphere in South Korea as leaning towards “pro-choice.” He said that he wants to bring the movie “Unplanned” to Korea to raise awareness of the reality of abortion.

“We need people’s prayers for Korea,” he said.

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