Laws giving women a "safe zone" around NSW abortion clinics, free from protesters and activists, have passed their first legislative hurdle after a day of debate and protest.
The proposed laws, which will provide a 150-metre exclusion zone around clinics and make it an offence to film staff and patients without their consent, passed the NSW upper house on Thursday.
The bill is now expected to be introduced to the legislative assembly next month.
Government MPs have been given a conscience vote on the legislation, which NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she is likely to support.
The bill provoked emotional debate from both sides of the house, including Early Childhood Education Minister Sarah Mitchell, who fought back tears in describing her own miscarriage and subsequent medical procedures.
Ms Mitchell, who voted in favour of the bill, said she would have been pushed close to the edge had a protester confronted her outside a clinic she needed to visit following the miscarriage.
"If I had had to have the procedure after losing my baby in the clinic, no-one would know the reasons for me being there because it is just not possible for protesters outside the door to know the personal and intimate reasons why every woman is going into the clinic," she told parliament.
Nationals MP Trevor Khan, a co-sponsor of the bill along with Labor's Penny Sharpe, said the debate transcended political alliances.
"This is not a matter of left versus right, it is a matter of common decency," Mr Khan told the upper house.
"It is not our place to judge these women, we do not know their stories."
Meanwhile, Ms Sharpe took aim at free speech advocates arguing against the laws, saying what was occurring outside abortion clinics did not amount to protest.
"It is harassment, even if it is well-intentioned," Ms Sharpe sad
The bill was not without its opponents, including Christian Democrat Fred Nile, who claimed a nearby abortion clinic had its sewerage pipes blocked by "baby body parts".
"They had to get the plumbers in to find out what was blocking the sewerage pipes and you'll be disgusted to know it was baby body parts, little arms, little legs, parts of bodies of babies that had been aborted," Rev Nile said.
However, the abortion clinic in question issued a statement in response to Rev Nile's comments, which it said were "completely false".
Rev Nile described the bill as draconian, and said it would "stop Australians who have strong belief in the sanctity of life from even saying hello, or smiling, or walking into that area".
Outside parliament, protesters from both sides of the debate lined Macquarie Street.
Fair Agenda spokeswoman Alycia Gawthorne said women should be protected if they seek to terminate their pregnancy.
Carolyn O'Loughlin, who held a large placard with a photo of a 10-week-old foetus and caption 'I cannot yet speak, please be my voice!', says the new laws would censor free speech.
Australian Associated Press
