Government urged to tackle anti-abortion protests in UK after women are confronted outside clinics

The Government is being urged to change legislation amid rising concern over anti-abortion “vigils” confronting women outside abortion clinics across the UK.

Women entering clinics to access abortion services or pregnancy and family planning advice are being confronted with large images of foetuses and pro-life campaigners urging them to change their minds, often wielding large images of foetuses.

Some women have been reduced to tears by the demonstrators, while others have decided not to enter the clinic after being confronted by a barrage of abuse, or missed their appointments because they were too frightened to walk past protestors, pro-choice campaigners said.

A Labour MP is now planning to table an amendment to new domestic violence legislation to establish “buffer zones”, which would see 150-metre zones around abortion clinics and pregnancy advisory bureaus where pro-life protests and harassment of women entering them is banned.

Rupa Huq told Labour conference delegates at a fringe event last month examining safety for women and girls that there were longstanding issues with protesters “weaponising rosary beads” outside a clinic in her west London constituency.

Abortion providers and pro-choice campaign groups are also pushing for action at a local level, with one local council considering introducing a Public Space Protection Order in the space outside a clinic after pressure from campaigners and residents – which has never been done before in the UK.

The Marie Stopes clinic, located in the London borough of Ealing, has been targeted by anti-abortion demonstrators for years, but in an unprecedented move, campaign group Sister Supporter is preparing to present the case to local councillors next week.

Ms Huq, who is MP for Ealing and is backing the movement, told The Independent the area outside abortion clinics must be “safe spaces” and urged that “enough is enough”.

"For years and years the passage of women to the Marie Stopes clinic in Mattock Lane, Ealing within my constituency has been blocked by protestors brandishing rosary beads and lining the pavement with foetus dolls and gruesome ghoulish images to deter vulnerable women go in and clinic staff trying to enter their workplace leaving me and other local residents silently fuming," she said.

"In the past year a counter-protest group Sister Supporter have emerged on the scene and the police complain that they are powerless to do anything about the standoffs between the two with service users caught up in the crossfire.

"Things cannot go on as they are. This is basically an anti-harassment issue to keep the pavement as a safe space. People just swerve the area. Enough is enough now."

A body of evidence gathered by Sister Supporter reveals accounts from residents of pro-life demonstrators "terrorising" women on the street, and shows leaflets distributed by the groups urging women that they will "regret" their decision.

Anna Veglio-White, spokesperson for the group, which is leading the push for a protection order, said she had seen women being discouraged from entering the clinic. “They call the women murderers, they physically trying to stop them from going into the clinic, giving them leaflets that say they’re going to become a drug addict and have an eating disorder,” she said.

“We’ve seen them tell girls it’s not the clinic, so women miss their appointments. On a number of occasions we’ve also seen girls get so upset that they’ve burst into tears and run into the nearby park. On one occasions the woman just didn’t go in. She got too upset and didn’t want to walk past them. Her partner asked them to move out of the way so she could walk in but they wouldn’t.”

Sister Supporter will present the evidence and the case for a public space protection order to be implemented at a meeting with Ealing councillors next week. Ms Verglio-White said she was confident that the council would take action. “Ealing Council just put the same order in down the road from the clinic in a very small park, where a lot of people go and drink and take drugs. So they’ve already gone through the process of implementing one and know how to do it,” she said.

“It’s been two years of showing up and counter-demonstrating. We now have a more driving force to work towards this. People have complained to the police and the council, but there’s never been a really targeted campaign until now. I feel cautiously confident that if the council can take any action they will.”

open image in gallery

One leaflet handed out by pro-life groups outside the clinic, included in Sister Supporter's evidence, read: “We know you are probably upset and confused. Even if you have already had medication, it is not too late to save your BABY. Please don’t do anything now that will HURT YOUR CHILD because you will later regret it.” Another listed “possible complications” stemming from abortion being “breast cancer” and “damage to maternal instinct and to bonding process with any other children you have”, which are unproven side effects.

Ealing residents have also expressed “outrage” at the pro-life protesters, with one saying: “The presence of the ‘pro-life’ protesters is incredibly intimidating, especially as a young woman in the area. The photos they lay on the ground of a foetus during various stages of development is quite frankly a disgrace. They stand there all day and terrorise vulnerable women.”

The Independent reached out to several pro-life groups who have been seen outside abortion clinics. One, Abort67, said they used large images to show the “horrific” reality of abortion, saying it worked to make some women change their minds. “We use large banners showing images of both the living pre-born child and the horrific reality of abortion, to inform women of what the abortion industry is hiding,” a spokesperson for the group said.

“Abortion is covered with euphemisms such as 'choice' and 'women's rights' and the plight of the pre-born child is totally ignored. Seeing the reality of abortion changes everything. Some women change their minds when they see these images.“

Another group, the Good Counsel Network, whose members stand outside the clinic six days a week, meanwhile urged that they did not harass women, but rather offered them practical help and support with keeping their baby.

Clare McCullough, a spokesperson for the organisation, told The Independent: “I’m amazed at the lengths people will go to stop pregnant women from looking at the alternatives. We try to make sure women are not being pressured into abortion. We’ve had hundreds of women accept help outside Marie Stopes.

“Harassment is a crime. If we were harassing anyone we would be arrested. In fact, what we’re trying to do is help women to have an alternative, if they’re willing to accept it.”

When asked about the large images of babies, Ms McCullough said the group didn’t hold them up, but placed only A4 images on the ground to showing the different stages of a foetus in the womb.

She said the network, funded by mainly Christian groups, had two houses were girls can stay and could sometimes support them with rent in their own accommodation, as well as providing counselling and baby goods when the child is born.

Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), two major abortion providers and family planning services in the UK, are both behind the local action to bring in a Public Space Protection Order and the national push to implement buffer zones around clinics.

Rachael Clarke, public affairs and advocacy manager at BPAS, told The Independent: “This has been happening for years, but women are often afraid to go to court and stand up and say what happened.

“We’ve spent a long time trying to work out a solution. We’ve spoken to the police, but they say there’s nothing they can do. They’re concerned that if they arrest people the CPS will say you can’t because they’re exercising their right to free protest and of religion. Realistically, it’s not a decision we should expect the police to have to make.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that we need new legislation to bring in buffer, making it explicit and putting a circle around them. The policy already takes place in British Columbia, Canada and in Victoria in Australia.

“It isn’t about whether you support abortion or not, it’s about the harassment of people who are accessing freely available health services that the law says they can provide and that clinical commissioning groups commission.”

Marie Stopes UK’s chief nurse Sally Bassett meanwhile said: “We know there is an increase in protests outside our clinics at certain times of the year, but overall numbers have stayed largely the same. Sadly, small groups of protestors are a common feature outside abortion clinics and have been for some time.

“Many carry out peaceful protests and keep their distance from the women accessing services, but even they can make what is already a difficult day much more traumatic. Others are more persistent and even aggressive in their behaviour.

“Our priority will always be the safety and wellbeing of the women who depend on our services and while we respect and support the right to free speech, we are adamant that protests should never be at the expense of a woman's right to legal health services.”