To think men have no right to stand outside abortion clinics and do this.

[QuestioningStuff]

Posted before about my pregnancy. I am having a termination today. This is not a decision I've made lightly.

I've arrived at the clinic and there is a middle aged man and his young teen son standing outside with camp chairs and flasks. Putting up awful pictures and signs. Trying to hand out leaflets.

I think women who do this are also scum but how on earth could a man think he has any right to do this? Turn up at a place where women are at their most scared and vulnerable and try to bully them?

It's really really upset me. I hate them so much right now.

I want to go and tell them exactly what I think of them but don't think that would be helpful at this time.

why don't police move them on esp if they are showing graphic photos

Of course it's a medical procedure. A medical procedure that some would deny a woman.

I feel "ANY stage of her pregnancy" and the "appendix" comment are both of equal unhelpfulness.

twofingerstoGideon thanks for the link I signed it.

About the only thing abortion and appendectomy have in common is that they're medical procedures. Are you really comparing the two, Mummy? And you call other people disingenuous.

The kind of protest this compares to are those Westboro Baptist Church ones where upstanding Christian fundamentalists turn up at military funerals saying God Hates Fags.

Harassing individuals at an incredibly difficult time should not be legitimised as 'the right to protest'. It's aiming at an easy target for maximum attention and emotional damage. I'm sure those who think they're 'saving lives' get more of a kick seeing women cry than they would by being just part of another crowd in Parliament Square.

"Until we have that we are denying women's autonomy over her body."

Except protesting or petitioning the decision-maker is not denying their autonomy. Compulsion, would be.

I have never considered such protests because life is complicated and painful and I couldn't base my actions on blanket assumptions that might give people pain. Still, people have a right to protest peacefully in what they consider the interests of the vulnerable, and it's a good thing that people do.

I hope that you are alright OP

They have no right to upset you in this way.

What I was trying to say gideon(obviously very clumsily) is that abortion is NOT like any other medical procedure. I'm sure most women would laugh a bit if some protester showed them appendixes and preached that gods plan was for us to keep them. It would be a bit of a distraction or a mild nuisance on the way into the clinc. The fact that anti-abortion protesters upset people so much is (I would hazard not too big a leap to make) because the woman does feel some guilt about it. Why can't people just admit this and not lie about it all being the woman's body (as basic science tells us that's not the case) but that the living woman has more rights than the foetus?

But its NOT peaceful protest
if its causing harm.

There's no way a protest at a clinic could do anything but cause harm.

that is not a peaceful protest

I had a surgical termination last week.

Three hour journey by train with lots of changes, as I was unable to drive due to the GA. My day started at 05.30am and finished late afternoon travelling back through London, on my own and almost blacking out at points.

Needless to say it wasn't a pleasant experience. I was scared and upset, and with the personal circumstances of a pending divorce which heavily influenced my decision making. Luckily for me, there were no protesters - but if there had been, I don't think I would have been able to restrain myself from telling them how unwelcome their 'protest' was. Accessing abortion services isn't as easy as it's made to be, and people who've actually made it to the clinic should not have to face this.

I've yet to meet or hear of a person who said 'I was undecided about abortion until I saw some people harassing a woman outside a clinic. They've certainly won me over'.

I hope you're ok OP. Be kind to yourself and take no notice of the opinions of people who know nothing about you. It's your body, your life. It says more about them than about any woman that they think harassing a vulnerable person at such a difficult time in their life is justified

So what is it if it isn't "just another medical procedure"?

Mummy - I'm not sure I'm following your argument, but are you suggesting that all women do (or should?) feel guilt about terminating a pregnancy?

Protesting or petitioning the decision-maker by literally placing yourself between them and the clinic is on the same scale as denying their autonomy.

They've already asserted that this is their decision. They've chosen to terminate. They've made an appointment. They've travelled there. To protest outside is to say: I know you've chosen to come here, and I don't have a clue about your circumstances, and I'm certainly not offering to bear, raise or pay (physically, emotionally, financially) for your child -- BUT YOU'RE WRONG.

It's a 'peaceful' protest purely on the simplest terms: nobody punches anyone in the face. Just stands between them and their decision, a self-appointed reckoner.

Seems like most do or why would they get so upset about the protesters?

Mummyusername is a bit confused I think. Bless.

Ummm, maybe they're upset because they're being harassed by loons? Just a thought.

You're beyond offensive Mummy.
Absolutely clueless.

LikePirate you're the only one on this thread who seems to debating abortion. I wish you'd STFU

A foetus is not a baby, and not really a viable " human life". And abortion is a legally available medical procedure. So just stop it with your moralising.

Hope you're OK, OP

"Seems like most do or why would they get so upset about the protesters?"

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

I agree with the posters saying it's not a peaceful protest.

There's a private clinic near my house which offers a range of services relating to women's health, that has these people outside it on a regular basis.

They harass any woman walking along the pavement in the direction of the clinic, just to make sure they don't miss anybody who might be trying to go in. Once you are passed the gate, in either direction, they stop and turn on the next approaching woman instead.

They always look like they are having a great day out, with their camping chairs and picnic boxes and thermoses, but also their placards and candles and singing and their fucking horrible pictures. They take up the whole pavement to force you to walk though them while they try to push leaflets at you and demand to know if you are on your way to the clinic. If you cross the road they shout or sing at you.

They are not too far away from the women's hospital either. I found it really upsetting when I lost my babies to have to go to appointments when these people were outside the clinic just along the road. I can't imagine how much worse it must feel to be attending the clinic itself.

And because they are so close to the women's hospital, and they are harassing every woman who walks along the road, many of the woman they come into contact with are pregnant, or have been through losses like ours, or are attending for infertility treatment etc.

A termination is a medical procedure, although it is perhaps a more emotive one than many others. All the more reason not to bully and harass the person who has made the decision to go ahead with having one.

I'm sure some women do feel guilt or sadness when considering an abortion, but how do these protesters help, exactly? No women, visiting a clinic, is going to reconsider what they are going to the clinic for because of these lunatics.

These people aren't going to get the law changed by sitting outside clinics. They must surely know this, so literally the ONLY reason someone would protest in such a place is because they are fucking arseholes, and we legislate against people being fucking arseholes in many other ways, so why not this one?