Pro-life protester John Graham Preston in court challenge

TASMANIA’S nation-leading abortion laws are set to face a constitutional challenge from a pro-life campaigner convicted of protesting outside a termination clinic.

TASMANIA’S nation-leading abortion laws are set to face a constitutional challenge from a pro-life campaigner convicted of protesting outside a termination clinic.

Long-time anti-abortion activist John Graham Preston was convicted and fined $3000 this year for protesting outside the Hobart health facility.

Preston had flown in from Queensland to challenge the laws by conducting protests in September 2014 and April last year.

He was subsequently charged with engaging in prohibited behaviour within the clinic’s access zone.

Magistrate Catherine Rheinberger found him guilty in July, noting that although the protests were peaceful, Preston came to Tasmania with the express purpose of defying the state’s Reproductive Health Act.

Introduced in 2013, the Act legalised abortion in Tasmania and, in an Australian-first, banned protests within 150m of a termination clinic.

John Graham Preston (left) and his barrister Christopher Brohier (right) leaving the Hobart Magistrates Court in July. Picture: DUNCAN ABEY

During the court hearing, Preston and co-defendants Raymond and Penny Stallard unsuccessfully argued the exclusion zone legislation was unconstitutional.

Preston has lodged an appeal in Tasmania’s Supreme Court.

Tasmania’s Solicitor-General Michael O’Farrell, SC, flagged the case in his annual report, labelling it a constitutional matter likely to involve the State Government.

Mr O’Farrell said the case challenged the Act under the implied freedom of political communication in Australia’s Constitution and religious freedom provisions in Tasmania’s Constitution.

The appeal includes eight grounds of appeal, including the claim that Ms Rheinberger erred in not finding the Act’s protest prohibition invalid because it breached the implied freedom of political communication.

Preston is crowd-funding his appeal online and has so far raised $13,410 with a goal of $48,000.

The appeal is expected to be heard next year.

Originally published as Pro-life protester John Graham Preston in court challenge