Facilitating Safe Access to Health Care through Legislative Reform- the Australian Example’

The realisation of the right to health is vulnerable to the interventions of strangers, acting on the belief that certain healthcare should not be permissible under the law or accessible in practice. In Australia, the key arena for such interventions has been abortion services. Drawing on empirical research undertaken by the authors, this paper examines the impact of these interventions and the effectiveness of ‘safe access zone’ laws that now operate nationwide to constrain them. After examining the unsuccessful constitutional challenge to these laws in the High Court of Australia, the paper considers whether safe access zones may have utility in other health care contexts.