The US anti-abortion activist Troy Newman has abandoned a court challenge against the federal government over the cancellation of his visa.
Newman’s visa was cancelled before he left the US for Australia last month, but he boarded a flight anyway and was then sent home after the high court rejected a legal bid to prevent his deportation.
Newman, who had been due to address events organised by Right to Life Australia in October, attracted controversy as a result of a previous remark that abortion doctors should be tried as murderers and face execution “for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people”.
A directions hearing in his attempt to have the visa cancellation overturned had been due on Friday, but Right to Life Australia announced hours beforehand he had withdrawn.
The organisation said Newman, also known as Troy Newman-Mariotti, had “decided not to proceed against the commonwealth of Australia, as he does not have access to the same vast resources as the commonwealth”.
“Despite this, both Mr Newman and Right to Life Australia feel that there are several elements of this case which are inherently unfair and which mean that, ultimately, this is not a just or fair result,” it said in a statement.
“Mr Newman holds views which some Australians disagree with. However, the court challenge raised in the high court argued that the delegate who cancelled Mr Newman’s visa did so in breach of the implied freedom of political communication in our constitution.
“The fear that some people may protest about a speaker’s message should not be enough to cancel his or her visa or to prevent them from coming to Australia.”
Right to Life accused the immigration department of “incompetence”, saying the government had attempted to notify Newman of the cancellation of his visa by email, but used the wrong address, and he “never received a copy of the cancellation decision before attempting to depart for Australia”.
The organisation said the department also sent Newman a letter dated 29 September, the day he left Kansas for Australia, and he “did not receive the letter before attempting to depart for Australia”.
However, the court has previously been told the cancellation notice was sent to the email address Newman had provided on the visa application form. Footage was also posted online of Newman being told by officials in Denver, Colorado, he could not board his flight to Los Angeles, which was to connect to a flight to Australia, and he should contact the Australian embassy.
The high court judge Geoffrey Nettle rejected Newman’s bid to prevent his removal from Australia on 2 October, saying the campaigner did “not come to this court with clean hands” because he had been on notice before he left the US his visa had been cancelled.
“Although the plaintiff has every right to challenge the cancellation decision, he has no right to treat it as nought until and unless his challenge has been upheld,” Nettle said then.
“For the time being, like everyone else in this country, he is bound by lawful authority and must obey it.”
Material presented to the court showed the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, cancelled Newman’s visa because he was satisfied his presence in Australia would risk the good order of the community. Dutton noted the public could have an “adverse reaction” to his presence, resulting in protests.
The Labor MP Terri Butler had earlier written to Dutton to request the visa cancellation, arguing the activist could “cause significant harm to our community” and pointing to a passage in Their Blood Cries Out, a book Newman co-wrote.
It said: “In addition to our personal guilt in abortion, the United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people. Instead, the act of abortion has been elevated to a ‘God-given right’ and the abortionists canonized as saints. Consequently, the entire nation has the blood-red stain of the lives of the innocent upon its head.”
Newman’s supporters argued he did not advocate violence and “urges pro-life activists to work within the governmental and legal system to accomplish change”.
Right to Life Australia said on Friday the immigration department appeared to have acted on Butler’s request “without checking any of the allegations, and without offering Mr Newman an opportunity to correct the (false, misleading and deceptive) allegations”.
Comment has been sought from the department and Dutton’s office.
