Anti-abortion activists want to demonstrate near clinics

Anti-abortion activists are calling for the invalidation of the Quebec law which prohibits demonstrations within a radius of 50 meters around abortion clinics. The Superior Court of Quebec is hearing their case this week in Montreal. The Quebec government defends its law. The clinics refuse to go back.

Since 2016, Quebec legislation has prohibited demonstrations or “any other form of intervention” aimed at “attempting to dissuade a woman” from obtaining an abortion within 50 meters of the grounds of a facility offering an abortion service.

Québec-Vie campaign, the D^re Roseline Lebel Caron and Brian Jenkins are challenging this law in court. They filed a motion to this effect in 2019. Judge Lysane Cree has been hearing their case since Monday. Closing arguments will take place Thursday and the trial is expected to conclude at the end of the week.

The plaintiffs argue that this legislation contravenes their right to freedom of opinion and expression as well as their right to peaceful assembly guaranteed, they say, by the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights.

“We do what we call sidewalk counseling,” said the president of Campagne Québec-Vie, Georges Buscemi, interviewed Tuesday on the sidelines of the hearings at the Montreal courthouse.

According to him, this activity is “completely legitimate, peaceful”, and aims to “save the unborn child and the woman from an action that she may regret”. A gesture, he specifies, which has “spiritual, moral and physical consequences”.

“To do this type of activity, you have to be near abortion centers to be able to talk to people, to be able to say things in calm, in peace,” adds Georges Buscemi.

Anti-abortion activists say the 50-meter rule hinders their freedom of expression. “We want to say things,” he said. That’s all. Saying things that might seem unpopular, that might seem controversial maybe, but just saying things. »

In defense of the law

The Attorney General of Quebec defends his law. The Morgentaler Clinic, the Fémina Medical Clinic and the Montreal Women’s Health Center have asked to act as interveners in the case. According to them, this legislation protecting women’s free access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) must be maintained.

France Désilets, former general director of the Morgentaler Clinic, testified on Tuesday. The Press spoke with her following the hearings. She recalled that she had to seek injunctions banning anti-abortion activists from protesting outside her clinic before the law was passed in 2016.

According to her, the presence of demonstrators near a clinic offering abortions has an impact on the women, their companions and the employees.

The atmosphere becomes “heavy” in the clinic. Employees fear for the safety of their patients and their own. “I lost an employee because of that,” says France Désilets. The stress was too great. I had security concerns myself. I was followed in the metro and I was attacked [à l’entrée de la clinique]. »

During hearings Tuesday afternoon, a woman described how she felt when anti-abortion protesters — “a little excited,” she said — approached her near the Clinique Fémina in January 2015. She said: went there for a consultation.

“I found it extremely intrusive in my personal life,” she said. I don’t know these people. I found it really offensive. » She said she felt “judged” and “a little threatened”.

A “crucial” measure

Family doctor Geneviève Bois performs abortions at the Montreal Women’s Health Center. She did not testify during the trial. This “buffer measure” of 50 meters around service points is, she judges, “crucial” for the “safety of women and employees”.

“We see, in jurisdictions where there is no similar protection, people who have to be escorted to the door of a clinic by volunteers, because they are shouted at, because people have bullhorns, because they are harassed, she said. We cannot feel that we have free access to health care if we are harassed in this way. »