To really want to say something to these abortion protestors?

[Crocodileclip]

Firstly, I know I will probably never say anything as I appreciate that the protestors have the right to protest but it really pisses me off.

A small group of people have been protesting outside the Marie Stoppes clinic in Belfast since it opened in 2012. They stand outside the door on the days it is open holding anti abortion posters and trying to gather signatures for a petition. I pass them on my way to get to the station at home time and every time it annoys me. I can't imagine how offputting they would be if you were young and scared and just wanting some advice. Lots of pics of aborted foetuses etc. I find it intimidating enough myself and I am just walking past. I actually put my head down and walk quicker so that nobody asks me to sign the petition.

I'm currently pregnant with my second and am lucky never to have been in a position where abortion was an option but am of the opinion that there are situations in which it may be the best option available.

The clinic itself operates within NI law so only offers abortions up to 9 weeks and as far as I know is the only such clinic in Northern Ireland. I think I would be ok with the protestors doing their stuff elsewhere in the city centre it is the fact that it is just outside the only entrance to the clinc that makes me irrationally angry. Does this happen at other Marie Stoppes clinics elsewhere in the UK?

[BruthasTortoise]

The answer I've always got to that one Maryz is that it's worse for the girl to then have to go through the trauma of murdering her own baby as well as being raped than it is for her to carry the baby to term and put the child up for adoption. They say that the guilt of committing murder will be much worse in the long term than the trauma of the rape.
Have had the argument many a time with the pro-lifers, there's no changing their opinion.

[ikeaismylocal]

I don't think it is kind but I do think if we want to live in a country where protest is allowed it should be allowed.

I would say that they should be made to give actual advice, so if the clinic only does abortions before 9 weeks then they should only be able to show pictures of fetuses up to 8 weeks. I think the message would be much less shocking if they were showing what is actually nothing like a fully developed baby.

I havn't had an abortion before, I would be interested to know if the clinic gives patients a realistic idea of how developed their fetus is and how big it is, I wonder if being shown a picture of an aborted 5/6/7/8 week old fetus (although I think that is still an embryo?) would help counter the message from the anti abortion protesters with their dead baby posters.

[HadABadDay2014]

Instead of protesting in this way why not use a different approach.

Give the women help and support, point them into the direction where to get free or cheap baby items. Protest to the government about scraping the sure start services, including the sure start maternity grant and sure start play groups. Campaign for better and cheaper child care.

Of course there are many reasons for a women wanting an abortion and you can't answer all situations. I really don't care if a women wants an abortion her body her choice.

The only reason I would have an abortion is if I was raped and the MAP didn't work.

[Amethyst24]

Write to your MP

www.abortionrights.org.uk/index.php/action-centre/current-campaigns/450-abortion-clinic-protests-help-us-stop-the-harassment

IIRC there was also a group looking for volunteers to accompany women into the clinic and protect them from this sort of thing.

[EvenBetter]

The knuckle draggers used to hold up their shitty little posters in Cornmarket and outside CastleCourt when I was a kid, now they must be pleased to have a whole new area to froth over. Why aren't they at work? Or getting a hobby? The right to protest should be revoked here, for everyone until people educate themselves and learn to play nicely.
As if it weren't embarrassing enough living here.

[silverskates]

My clinic didn't, and nor would I want them to.

It is highly unlikely to be financial in the sense mentioned above surely? I could afford baby clothes but not being a single mother.

[namechangeagaininnit]

Absolute cunts. And I don't think they're entitled to their opinion - no one is entitled to stupid, ignorant, knuckle dragging views.

YANBU OP.

[HanSolo]

bumbley I don't think they have a clue about the reality most people contemplating abortion face.
These people can afford not to work themselves (they stand outside clinics all day, every day.

I live quite close to one of these clinics, that has people protesting outside for its entire opening hours. I followed them home to their £3.5m house one evening (I was walking that way, not a stalker!), so I'm pretty sure they have no idea what it's like to be scared to death about having another mouth to feed, clothe, and generally provide for

[NuggetofPurestGreen]

I see people protesting outside the Marie Stopes near my house the odd time - in Dublin where they can't perform abortions

[BerniceBroadside]

I despise the anti choicers.

Oh they love a foetus, but they're nowhere to be seen once a baby is born. In fact they're probably the same people who pearl clutch about those terrible single mothers. Bunch of cocks.

[MaidOfStars]

YABU, everyone has the right to protest and speak against something they feel is wrong.

The way to fight this particular protest is to encourage strength, autonomy and courage and tell them that their posters are not representative and that they are repressive religionist arseholes

These people will not win. In fact, they've already lost.

[coffeeinbed]

There's always someone protesting outside Marie Stopes Warren Street.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

I also believe that if they really thought that babies were being murdered in the clinic they would be morally obligated to storm the building and physically restrain people from entering. They don't. They just stand outside with really gruesome pictures.

Bruthas -so you approve of the ones who bomb abortion clinics then - just not the peaceful ones that hold a sign?

Someone once explained to me why Christians are so determined to convert others - that if you saw a child playing on a motorway then you would tell them to get off. A Christian believes that a non Christian is going to go to hell.

Since then I have tried much harder to be less annoyed about people trying to convert me to Christianity.

To them they presumably see a baby about to be murdered and a young woman about to commit a terrible sin. If you didn't believe that why would you bother turning up in the cold and the rain.

I don't agree with what they do - I'm a pragmatist and can't help wondering how much good all that time and energy and money could do supporting young mothers - but I do think that they first,y have a right to be there and that they most of them are sincere in their beliefs.

[HadABadDay2014]

What confuses me is that Marie Stopes offer a range of services from contraception to vacetomies female sterilisation.

www.mariestopes.org.uk/ :- my source of information.

How do the protester know who is going to have an abortion to someone having a coil fitted.

[BerniceBroadside]

They are winning though, maidofstars. Look at the US. Look at the UK politicians who would like to make it harder for women to access abortion.

[BackOnlyBriefly]

I'm with those who say they should be forced to protest somewhere else. If they want to raise public awareness of something they consider wrong that's one thing, but not targeting the vulnerable directly.

Someone might hold the opinion that there are too many immigrants here here for example and could protest about that, but I doubt they could stand outside a mosque/synagogue handing out leaflets telling people to 'go back where they came from'.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Hadabadday - a committed catholic also disapproves of sterilisation (or in fact any contraception.) And a coil involves preventing a fertilised egg from implanting so by some people is seen as an abortion.

I think they also do smears at Marie Stopes though - which I think no one could possibly object to.

[Owllady]

Yanbu
It's dreadful and draconian

[MaidOfStars]

They are NOT winning. The last time we heard rumours about lowering the abortion limit (Maria Miller? Jeremy Hunt?), the people in power fell over themselves to clarify that there was no chance of this happening. NI will not be far behind more liberal abortion law, even Ireland is relaxing.

The US is an ugly problem, I agree. They send people here to do the protesting (perhaps in Belfast?). But there's only so much anyone non-US can do....publicise, blog, rant, make aware. And surely those nonsense states will self-combust at some point? Abortion, gay marriage, something's got to give...

[HadABadDay2014]

How far does the right to protest extend to.

For example right outside ICU with placards informing relatives/friends that it's wrong to turn off life support.

People with placards outside GP building about the dangers of the MMR.

Fathers for justice protesting outside women aid shelters.

[HadABadDay2014]

I think MS STI testing as well.

[Cocolepew]

They used to be in Corn Market every saturday and every saturday I had a row with them. They have a right to protest but the posters they had up were vile. I had a late miscarriage and asked one man how it felt for me to see the pictures, he couldn't have give a shit.
I took to yelling at them as I passed. I wrote to the Mayor but heard nothing. DH write to the council and to Citybus, they had posters of 'abortions' on the back of buses. He got no reply from either.

[StealthPolarBear]

If they have a right to protest can we protest against their protest? How much would a banner saying "ignorant misogynists" cost do you think.
my own mild protest is that a group which had "life" in its title asked me how many conceptions ended in aborti I n a few weeks ago. Ill get back tp them some time in 2025 or so...

[StealthPolarBear]

Id like to identify these places headquarters and protest there. Maybe taking along some pictures of a man hitting his pregnant wife, or a woman screaming during labour. Or a family in poverty

[StealthPolarBear]

A teenager who will never finish her education or g r t the future she wanted. Why is her life less important than thebunch of cells sshe's carrying?
I am fully pro choice. If a woman is happy to have a baby, wonderful. If she's not she should be able to abort. Because women matter too.