To think this isn't very nice ? ( Pro-life protestors)

[chattycaterpillar]

I am pregnant, 11 weeks, first pregnancy. Like all first time mother's, I am very worried about miscarriage.

Anyway, my booking appointment was changed to a phone appointment cos I had Covid at the time of the appointment. The midwife arranged for me to come in today, ( a week or so after isolation finished), so I could get my bloods/ Blood Pressure/ urine sample done etc.

The maternity centre is based in a community hospital that has a variety of NHS Community/ outpatient services attached, ( acute/ emergency treatments are at the main hospital across town). But the community hospital has maternity outpatients, mental health teams, counselling, STI testing, audiology, physiotherapy , dermatology services attached to it. It also has BPAS abortion clinic inside, ( which I didn't realise until this morning).

Anyway , a short distance from the hospital, when I was going in, there were about 8 signs with the most horrific images , ( very large), of dead foetus's etc. I had a leaflet thrust in my hand and the images, well for someone worrying about miscarriage, they were very upsetting.

AIBU to say whilst I understand termination is a controversial issue, it's completely out of order to force these images on members of the public ?

The midwife who did my bloods etc said I wasn't the first person who'd been upset by it, and that there was also a recurrent miscarriage clinic being run at the hospital so she imagined it would cause a lot of upset.

Never mind a vulnurable teenager or rape victim walking into the BPAS clinic being forced to see these images ?

I got talking to a lady in the waiting room who said she had experienced a stillbirth a few months before and found being confronted by these images incredibly distressing.

It is disgraceful op and makes me incredibly angry. I can only suggest writing to your MP and PALs but perhaps nothing can be done, I don't know.

Congratulations and I really hope all progresses well with your pregnancy

Would you be willing to say where this is? There are lots of counter protest groups who will do things like drown out their chanting or chaperone people to walk past without being forced to take leaflets etc.

It's repulsive. I'd support an exclusion zone of about... 5000 miles around clinics to protect women.

There have been protests about this on our local news a few years back. Protesting right at the gates of a private clinic, telling women abortion is a sin.
I'm all for people's opinions for/against but I'm afraid what antagonised me most about these protesters is that they were all MEN
yes you read that correctly MEN 😡🤬

Thanks, I'm not going to go into detail but they were very large, very graphic, full colour, blood etc.

I had a tiny scare earlier in the pregnancy, ( minor bleeding, private scan showed all was well), but stuff like this just makes you panic.

And you think, well anyone walking into that hospital for anything, ( e.g. a physiotherapy appointment or an STI test), could have previously experienced miscarriage/ stillbirth and find the graphic, in your face nature of these pictures very triggering.

There’s a long running campaign for exclusion zones. At a clinic near where I work it’s nuns that stand and intimidate women and hand out these vile leaflets. Out of the two parties involved in the transaction, I know I think is more likely to “burn in hell” (as per their leaflets).

Its disgusting that they can behave like this and the images they use are completely bullshit. They aren't real. People that do this kind of behaviour are absolutely vile.

YANBU, protests like this should be made to keep a distance of several hundred yards from the facility by law. Not just because of your situation, where you are being stressed while worried about a much wanted pregnancy, but also to protect women who have chosen termination.

If people want to protest and get abortion banned again, they should write to their MPs, protest outside the Houses of Parliament and start petitions. Not harrass vulnerable women with graphic images. I loathe protestors of this kind with a passion and if I didn't have to work would be volunteering for an organisation that provided escorts through these protests. Pro-life? More like pro-hate.

They’re not pro life, they’re pro forced birth.

@pointythings

YANBU, protests like this should be made to keep a distance of several hundred yards from the facility by law. Not just because of your situation, where you are being stressed while worried about a much wanted pregnancy, but also to protect women who have chosen termination.

If people want to protest and get abortion banned again, they should write to their MPs, protest outside the Houses of Parliament and start petitions. Not harrass vulnerable women with graphic images. I loathe protestors of this kind with a passion and if I didn't have to work would be volunteering for an organisation that provided escorts through these protests. Pro-life? More like pro-hate.

Well yes, I have a family member, ( younger cousin), who had to have a terminationa couple of years ago after for all intents and purposes being sexually assaulted at a party, ( police deemed it consensual). She was 15 at the time.

To think of her ever being confronted by these images makes me feel physically sick, as she is already upset and damaged enough by the termination as it is, ( as a family we are all trying to support her through this, but I know, even two years on, this would be seriously, seriously upsetting for her).

Horrendous. The 5000 mile exclusion zone previously suggested sounds about right.

I would have used their placards to smash them around the head. If I had seen this after my D&C for a missed miscarriage I would have gone fucking rabid on them. Cunts. Horrible fucking cunts.

If I was to contact PALS, is there anything they can do, or do they have a legal right to be there ? I got the impression from the midwife who did my blood tests, ( who had also been trying to calm the woman in the waiting room who had previously experienced a stillbirth), that the hospital weren't able/ allowed to get them to move.

YANBU. There are some specific clinics that have had exclusion zones placed around them (think there was one in Teddington) but sadly no general rule to prevent this happening.

@TinLeaf

They’re not pro life, they’re pro forced birth.

Exactly. Let’s not allow them to fudge what it is they’re actually advocating.

I’m so sorry that happened to you. Disgusting

@VimFuego101

YANBU. There are some specific clinics that have had exclusion zones placed around them (think there was one in Teddington) but sadly no general rule to prevent this happening.

Yes, what I thought. Don't think PALS / the hospital has the right to move them on ?

But then, if there was another protest in the hospital car park with say, racist/ homophobic slogans would it be the same case ? The hospital would have to let them stay ? I don't know.

Sister Supporter on twitter have asked people to report to them anti choice presence at UK clinics, the 40 days of lent marks a ramping up of this kind of intimidation and harrassment.

To quote:

 As part of our campaign for national #bufferzone legislation, we are collecting evidence of clinic harassment from across the country and we need YOUR help!

Simply WhatsApp us any images and a description of what was happening with the time, location and date and we will add it to our ever-growing evidence base.

Please remember: anti-choice "protesters" can often be agressive and we do not recommend engaging with them in any way.

Their whatsapp hotline number is 07306 358247. Their twitter handle is @SisterSupporter.

That is shocking and should not be allowed. I would be getting onto a local politician about it/ raising it with the hospital admin to see if anything could be done.

I'm in Ireland and we had a referendum on abortion recently enough and some of the pictures plastered on billboards and along roads were horrendous. Glad they are gone now.

I'm glad your pregnancy is going well. I've had a few MCs and am pregnant again with all going well thankfully. I would have been upset if there was something like that near my EPU when I was going in for early scans. I would think abortion clinics are ran from the same part of the hospital I would have visited.

There are 1000s of reasons women choose to have abortions, I doubt any of them come to that decision lightly and they do not need that judgement/ condemnation shoved at them during a very vulnerable time.

YANBU.

Pro-lifers, by definition, are not very nice and this kind of thing should just be plain illegal within a certain distance of medical facilities.

Sorry you had to go through that OP, it must have been awful. I delivered our last baby at 19 weeks and going to appointments for my new pregnancy has been very distressing. That would have upset me a lot.

I've seen them outside the local Marie Stopes centre in the past which I guess is a bit more targeted as it's an abortion/contraceptive facility (not that it makes it ok). Outside a hospital where there are children or women who may have experienced TFMR, rape, miscarriage etc is vile.

I'm pregnant after miscarriages and would have to change hospitals if I was going to be intimidated and harassed before / after every appointment. It's upsetting to even think of.

@lookingforjobinspiration

I would have used their placards to smash them around the head. If I had seen this after my D&C for a missed miscarriage I would have gone fucking rabid on them. Cunts. Horrible fucking cunts.

This with bells on!!

YANBU.

Back in 2009 I was having fertility treatment at a private clinic situated up the street from the hospital. The protestors were camped out in the clinic car park, shouting at the hospital patients from a distance, because they'd been moved on from the hospital.

Had to walk past all those signs and placards to go into the clinic and it made me incredibly angry. All those graphic signs and vile language, in a place where babies are in fact very much wanted and wished for, and where terminations are devastating.

It's been over a decade and I still get angry thinking about it.

This is why exclusion zones are needed. Personally I think it's misogynistic harassment and I'd make it a criminal offence.

I had no idea that lent was a time when these people increased their harassment of women. It's horrific.