A spokesperson for the Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) said legislating for the creation of “politically-charged censorship zones would set a dangerous precedent for principles of freedom of speech, expression and assembly. It would single out and curtail the fundamental rights of pro-life supporters which would be undemocratic and highly discriminatory”.

He added: “The Sinn Féin bill is not motivated by a concern that censorship zones are needed. The motivation behind the bill is about something entirely different. Pro-choice groups have taken to smearing pro-life people and are constantly making baseless claims about totally peaceful individuals who are simply exercising their democratic right to assemble in public to make their point. It’s very easy to seize on one or two images and use them to caricature and falsely depict an entire group of innocent people. But it is grossly unfair and unacceptable to behave in such a way”.

Last year, the proponents of this bill claimed that pro-life people engaged in “intimidatory” protests outside an abortion facility in Limerick. Within a month of these claims being made, the UL Hospitals Group issued a statement refuting the claims that there have been intimidatory protests and acknowledging that no such complaints have been received.