Last year, the mayor of Utrecht wrongly designated a different place for an anti-abortion demonstration by the political party Jesus Lives. the administrative judge judged Wednesday that the mayor has insufficiently substantiated why the demonstration was not allowed to take place at the Vrelinghuis in Utrecht.
Three demonstrators of Jesus Lives wanted to stand with an ambulance and banners in front of the abortion clinic the Vrelinghuis in Utrecht on 5 May last year. One day before the demonstration, Mayor Sharon Dijksma (PvdA) decided to attach regulations to this, whereby the ambulance could only be parked in a loading and unloading zone seventy meters away. According to Dijksma, the traffic situation at the Vrelinghuis was not suitable for holding a demonstration. Although the demonstration never took place, Jesus Lives went to the administrative court.
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The court ruled that the mayor only included the sidewalk directly in front of the clinic and the sidewalk across the street in its decision-making, and not the parking spaces across the street. That should have been because the mayor could not assume that the demonstration would take place on the sidewalk, says the court. According to the court, moving the demonstration to the loading and unloading zone was not sufficiently motivated at the time. The mayor has to make another decision.
Jesus Lives wants to organize more demonstrations in front of the clinic, but the ruling does not mean that the party can demonstrate in the parking space in front of the abortion clinic; that decision remains up to the mayor, the court said.