Pro-Lifers told to keep their distance

[longwayoff]

A court has ruled that anti-abortionists should keep 100 meters away from women attending the Ealing clinic. AIBU to say quite right too?

YANBU in fact I agree with others 100m isn't enough.

There are UK charities that offer financial support and housing for women who are considering terminating a pregnancy because of these factors. This enables them to make a choice about what to do.

Yes, I think everyone is aware of this. What they are asking is whether any of these charities are insisting on trying to waylay women within 100m of the clinic in Ealing? Why can't they make women aware of their services in a more humane and straightforward manner?

YABU, but I suppose I can't expect reason from someone who supports pre-born babies being torn apart limb by limb, alive, in the womb.

Gosh, the rhetoric, and its tenuous relationship to reality, never changes, does it?

YANBU

Anti choice aggressive protesters deserve to be shot into the sun.

I think some people mistake guilt tripping with 'offering help'.

You do not need to stand outside a clinic to 'offer help'.

Ugh. I hope you have chronic diarrhoea Bubsworth. May you spend the rest of your days constantly shitting yourself with horrendous gas pains

1000miles would be better. People are entitled to make their views known and hold demos etc and lobby the government.
They are not entitled to try and intimidate people at their most vulnerable.

An aside, but I really wish we would stop calling these people pro-life. Nobody is anti-life. It's pro-choice or anti-choice, or pro-choice and pro-forced-birth.

Absolutely.

Bubsworth, I’ve anaesthetised hundreds of women for terminations during my 36 years in the NHS. The embryo is also anaesthetised as the agents cross the placenta.
It is too early, developmentally, to be aware of, or respond to, pain in any case, other than reflex withdrawal at a spinal level.
The products of conception are removed by suction (surgical procedure), or expelled by the uterus (medical termination).
Nobody is “tearing babies limb from limb”. Such emotive language is not helpful.

Should of made it miles away in my opinion, what other life choices other women make is there business. Intimidating people outside, disgusting. There business, there choice

@Lamentations

I haven't voted on this. It's an emotive and complex issue. Not everyone who is Pro Life is, or behaves like, a piece of shit

But all the ones who 'protest' outside abortion clinics are.

And it's only them who are affected by this.

So not sure why you find it difficult to vote. Unless you support protestors right outside the clinic harassing and tormenting women going in, it has no impact.

They protested outside the maternity hospital in Ireland when I was pregnant last year. They chose to stand outside the clinic and harass women who were going in and out getting good news, bad news and everything in between. It was really upsetting and I had a healthy pregnancy. They also target a doctors surgery in my area who provide services. They all stand their with their rosary and pictures of Jesus and pray. There is a little old man with a rainbow flag and sometimes he comes and stands in front of them for a few hours just to piss them off. He is my hero

This is not a new decision, btw. The Court of Appeal has rejected a challenge to the exclusion zone established outside the Ealing Clinic more than a year ago by a "pro-life" organisation, i.e. upheld the existing Public Spaces Protection Order. Which is the right decision and one I am very pleased with. I supported the establishment of the PSPO here as did a huge number of Ealing residents. I have to say that even as someone not attending the clinic, I've felt quite harassed by the "protesters" - I frequently walked up that road on my mat leave and often had protesters shouting at me, or stepping off the patch of land they're now allowed on to thrust leaflets within a few inches of my face, and many local residents were also repeatedly harassed. I had to complain to the local police team on one occasion to get them to start complying with the PSPO restrictions again.

The PSPO is in large part the work of the brilliant organisation Sister Supporter, and they are now working on having exclusion zones around every UK clinic - consider supporting them if this matters to you. www.sistersupporter.co.uk/national

Absolutely. Judgemental bastards

Also it's worth pointing out that the PSPO isn't perfect. It relies on the protesters to be self-policing to a degree or else for residents and clinic staff and users to report any violations and wait until the police have a word, which isn't exactly instant. But it's a huge improvement and women are now able to approach from the east of the clinic and avoid the protesters altogether.

@Lamentations.
I understand what you're saying, however having a child involves more than just finances and housing.
There's a million and one reasons why a woman may choose to have an abortion. That choice is hers and hers alone.
No one has the right to harass someone due to them making a decision that in no way affects the protester in any way at all.
I have never needed the service myself, but I would never try to influence someone who may need to.
I come from a country where unless there is a danger to the mother or child or other extenuating circumstances, abortion is illegal. You really don't want to be one of those unfortunate women who either has to travel to another country where she can obtain that service, or she goes through with the pregnancy to have the child adopted.
A woman has a right to make her own decision regarding her body and indeed, her life. These protesters aren't going to finance the child that they want her to keep.
The exclusion zone should be much further away than it is.

Not far enough away in my opinion. Vile fuckers

Some women have changed their decision to terminate a pregnancy at the last minute due to the support of these people and are likely very grateful they were there

Well ain’t that just rosy
How about anyone who thinks picketing an abortion clinic is ok, be it the aggressive “your a murderer” types, or these “supportive” mythical unicorn types you describe just fucks off to the far side of fuck and let women make the decision for themselves?

Just an idea

Another Ealing resident who contributed to the original petition.

Whatever your particular beliefs these protestors were actively harassing women seeking to access legally available medical treatment. From what I witnessed there seemed to be a lot of judgment and not much support going on.

They have not been prevented from protesting but at a reasonable distance to avoid intimidating women attending the MS clinic.

The order did the best it could to balance the right to free speech against the right not to be harassed when seeking a lawful medical procedure.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=2bR4FJFuWcE

This is a 2 minute video of what people have to go through to get inside Kentucky’s only abortion clinic. It’s absolutely horrifying. I’m so glad we have these laws in UK.

^
And they [the protestors] consider themselves good Christians. Fucking hell.

Yes, these people are not pro-life. They’re anti-women. And if there is any truth women have been convinced at the doors to change their mind and not terminate, that is not necessarily a good thing. An abortion may be the best and safest option for her in her circumstances, how is it better for anyone if some low-life bullies and guilt trips her into changing her mind when she’s likely at her most vulnerable.

They’re not pro-life.

They’re anti-abortion. Let’s call it what it is.

Yanbu, we need the same to happen in Ireland too. Recently there has been protesters against abortion outside Holles St in Dublin praying and shit with small coffins.