ACT Women's Minister Yvette Berry has urged pro-life supporters to move regular prayer vigils from outside a city abortion clinic to the front of the Legislative Assembly building.
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Anti-abortion protesters have held weekly prayer meetings outside the Moore Street clinic for the past 16 years, but stepped up their action during the 40-day campaign.
Ms Berry has written to the ACT Right to Life Association and Canberra Goulburn's Catholic Archbishop Christopher Prowse, who led prayers at the vigil on Tuesday, asking them to move any future prayer gatherings to Civic Square.
"Politicians are the appropriate focus of any objection to the legality of termination services or concerns about the kinds of support women should have access to when making decisions about their reproductive health," Ms Berry wrote.
But ACT Right to Life Association president Bev Cains said she would "definitely not" consider moving the prayer vigils and would not recommend the change to the organisation's council.
"I believe it's the right of all Australians to express their opinion in a public place, and that is a public place.
"We would stand by our right to assemble there and to pray."
Ms Berry stopped short of supporting Mr Rattenbury's calls for exclusion zones, which would be similar to those in place in Tasmania.
"I believe it would be unfortunate to reach a position where, to protect women and workers from distress, it was necessary to place a protest exclusion zone around a health facility."
Mrs Cains said the proposed exclusion zones proposed by Mr Rattenbury were a "paranoid attack" on freedom of speech and the right to protest.
"An exclusion zone would criminalise any vigil within a 150 metre radius of the Health building," Mrs Cains said.
"Participants in a peaceful, prayerful vigil could face severe penalties.
"A number of people passing have spoken to us – we have never approached anyone."
Mr Rattenbury said the proposal wasn't about curtailing free speech, but about protecting a woman's right to access healthcare, even if the vigil was peaceful.
"It is designed to have an impact on [women], otherwise they wouldn't be there," he said.
"I'd invite them to come and protest to the lawmakers because what they want to change is the law."
Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson was reluctant to remove any right to free speech and said existing ACT legislation was adequate to deal with unlawful protests.
Members of the Australian National University's Women's Department held a picnic outside the abortion clinic alongside the prayer vigil on Friday morning.
ANU women's officer Loren Ovenssaid the picnic intended to create a "harassment-free zone" outside the clinic and to show support for an exclusion zone.
"We are not engaging with the anti-choice group on their moral views regarding abortion, but commenting on their use of the space."
Heidi Yates, of Women's Legal Centre ACT, awaited further details of the proposed exclusion zones but said women should be able to access all health services without harassment or discrimination.
