Abortion clinic ‘bubble zone’ bill clears final hurdle at legislature

Ontario is on the verge of banning protests outside abortion clinics, with the legislature having given final approval to a new “bubble zone” law Wednesday.

The vote was nearly unanimous, with only Carleton-Mississippi Mills MPP Jack MacLaren opposing the government bill. It now just needs ceremonial assent from the lieutenant-governor to take effect.

All three major parties at Queen’s Park supported the law, triggered by growing complaints from Ottawa’s Morgentaler Clinic on Bank Street that women and staff were being harassed by anti-abortion activists. The law creates 50-metre zones outside abortion clinics where pro-life protesters can’t set up; in Ottawa’s case, that covers all of Bank Street between Sparks and Queen streets. It also prohibits protesters from targeting the homes of clinic workers (including doctors, nurses and other staff ), or the workers themselves.

Although existing laws covered assaults and intimidation, clinic operators in Ottawa and other cities have complained that without police stationed permanently nearby, charging protesters who cross the line has been too difficult.

The Liberals hoped to use the bill to drive wedges through the Progressive Conservative caucus by making life difficult for social conservatives, but Tory Leader Patrick Brown responded by offering to pass the legislation immediately, exactly as the Liberals presented it. Instead, the governing party quickstepped it through a shortened version of the usual process for considering the bill — still fast, taking barely a week, but not as fast as the Tories had proposed.

Although Brown supported the bill, some socially conservative Tories missed the vote, including Lanark MPP Randy Hillier, Niagara MPP Sam Oosterhoof, and southwestern Ontario MPP Rick Nicholls. A pair of Liberal MPPs the Tories have identified as abortion critics, Joe Dickson and Mario Sergio, were absent.