Cabinet is to approve legislation to establish safe access zones around premises which provide abortion services.
Impeding access to or trying to influence someone's decision to terminate a pregnancy will be an offence within a 100 metre buffer zone around such premises.
People will be allowed to protest outside that zone and the penalties will only kick in after Gardaí have given an initial warning.
If people continue to protest or breach the law after a warning, they could be brought to the District Court where escalating penalties will apply for repeat offences - up to a maximum fine of €2,500 or six months in prison.
The bill is expected to start its passage through the Oireachtas before the summer recess.
'Very unpleasant for our staff'
Speaking to Lunchtime Live earlier this year, Dr Madeleine Ní Dhalaigh said she found the protestors outside her clinic “most intimidating”.
“They’re across the road with banners, with their eyes trained on our entrance,” she said.
“It’s most intimidating and I have to say it’s very unpleasant for our staff.
“We have a great team and I have no idea how anybody on our team voted in the referendum; they’re very possibly people who voted no but they’ve never obstructed or objected to us providing legal healthcare - which it is - to the women and girls of the area.”
'Nasty and vindictive malice'
After the Government announced its intention to introduce safe access zones, Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute told the Catholic News Service the legislation would be a “wholly disproportionate response”.
“The truth is that most people are not abortion extremists,” she said.
“If they knew the truth — that this bill wants to criminalise peaceful people who are usually silently praying for women and hoping to offer them support — they would be opposed to this measure.
“There is no significant evidence that shows a need for this measure; it smacks of the kind of nasty and vindictive malice which can emerge when those who have, for now, achieved a majority want to punish their opponents.”
The Government hopes the legislation will be on the statute book by the end of the year.
Main image: Pro-life protestors outside Leinster House at A Vigil For Life.
