The High Court of Australia has ruled safe-access zones around abortion clinics are constitutional, dismissing legal challenges by two anti-abortionists.

John Graham Preston, who was found guilty of illegally protesting within 150m of a Hobart clinic in 2016, and Kathleen Clubb, the first person to be convicted in Victoria for protesting outside the Fertility Control Clinic in Melbourne in 2017, both argued the safe-access zone legislation violated the implied freedom of political communication under the Australian Constitution.

Mr Preston was found to have been within the no-protest zone, carrying placards reading “Every child has the right to life” and “Everyone has the right to life”.

But the High Court dismissed their case, stressing anyone who wished to protest could still do so unimpeded, outside the 150m radius of the safe-access zones.