Lyle Shelton Vows Family First Will Repeal NSW Safe Access Zones Ahead Of 2027 Election

Family First National Director Lyle Shelton has vowed the party will recommit to repealing safe access zones around abortion clinics for New South Wales’ 2027 state election.

Shelton, who will be a candidate for the Upper House, argues that the laws are being used to criminalise peaceful Christian witness and prayer, calling them “censorship zones”.

“If Australian law allows Greens founder Bob Brown to chain himself to bulldozers to save trees, Christians should be free to stand peacefully outside facilities where unborn babies are killed and to offer prayers and compassionate support to women who are often coerced into aborting their baby,” he said.

It comes after the former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, Clive Johnson, was found guilty of breaching abortion access zone laws by preaching biblical verses near a hospital last year.

“What’s happened to pastor Johnston in Northern Ireland is chilling and could easily happen here under our flawed laws,” Shelton claimed.

Safe access zones for abortion clinics were introduced in NSW in 2018, providing 150 metres of space around the provider where it is illegal to obstruct or harass people accessing clinics or record them without their consent.

The legislation was created in response to the picketing of abortion clinics by anti-abortion protesters, who branded themselves “sidewalk counsellors” and would attempt to dissuade those accessing reproductive healthcare from doing so. Similar laws are now in place across all states and territories.

“These laws are incompatible with a free society,” Shelton said. “Australians should not face criminal sanctions for peaceful prayer or expressing deeply held moral and religious beliefs in public places.

“Family First opposes harassment, intimidation and abuse of any person. Existing laws already deal with that. But peaceful prayer, preaching and offers of help should never be treated as criminal acts in a free society.”

The conservative party has always opposed abortion, calling it the “human rights issue of our generation.”

In the 2023 NSW state election, Family First ran for the Legislative Council as an unregistered independent group and won 58,000 votes, representing 1.1 per cent of the vote.

As per their website, the party currently has one candidate set to run for the Lower House in the 2027 NSW election.