Woman arrested in Birmingham for praying outside abortion clinic

[bagthoughts]

How on earth can someone be arrested for silently praying?

Is there more to the story perhaps that is not being reported because if not I find this ridiculous and scary - what is the world coming to?

We can get arrested for our thoughts WTAF. Whether you agree or not with abortion this is just wrong.

The most common activities of pro-life groups were found to be quiet or silent prayer, or offering leaflets about charitable support available to women who would like to consider alternative options to abortion.

I’d get banned if I said what I think someone should do to people harass women outside an abortion clinic, and do it in such a disgusting manipulative way as that they’re pretending to “help”. Are you personally going to pay their bills?! Because there is no help in this country you absolute moron. Single mums on benefits are in poverty.

Attention seeking dickhead. She could have prayed anywhere, even on the other side of the exclusion zone. She chose that spot because she wanted to capitalize on the attention. Poor her, penalized for…deliberately breaking the law in order to containing harassing patients.

Ah thank you for spotting. I gave the OP the benefit of the doubt but I’d say thats pretty obvious then. I hate the coordinated far right posters spreading their bullshit with wide eyed innocent posts. Nasty people.

You could have literally just read one article though, instead of relying on Fox News, that purveyor of truth 🙄

She could go a silently pray in a church or her own home

she has chosen to pray there to make a statement

that statement is not needed or wanted

Yabu

she was harassing women inside an exclusion zone

she deserved to be arrested and I’m extremely glad she was

Im glad she did. Go to church. No one else has anything to do wuth her religious beliefs and other women accessing healthcare is none of her business

gah 🙄

She must be one of those religious fundamentalists that is always there harassing women going into the clinic. Also on property that she should not be on, so rightly arrested.

This.

I think people are being unnecessarily harsh with you on here.
Benefit of the doubt, you see the biased spin news outlets like Fox News put on news stories and go by that
Kind of like how the Daily Mail does
Conveniently omits details when they feel like it/doesn't fit their agenda.
Always read or watch politically opposite leaning news too to get the full picture

I find it scary too.

Scary that people are so stupid as to believe that someone in this situation is simply silently praying. If that were all they were doing, they wouldn’t need to be anywhere near a termination clinic. They could sit at home and silently call on God.

But they don’t. Because they’re not praying, they’re performance praying. Like the Pharisees, I suppose.

Its meant to shame and intimidate. These people will use God to intimidate others. You’re quite right - they are scary.

“And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.

But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”
(Matthew 6:5)

Between the above & “The Woes of the Pharisees” as documented in Matthew & Luke - essentially, blistering condemnation of the hypocrisy of claiming a [special/privileged] relationship with God while oppressing those He loves - this woman makes it very clear she wears her “faith” rather than lives it. Jesus made it expressly clear that behaviour like hers is not acceptable. Arguably she’s also committing the sin of pride: all in all, she is apparently a shockingly unChristian Christian.

Oh & to be clear, of course she has no business lurking outside the Clinic no matter what she’s doing - she could be tap-dancing, playing the bagpipes, or out-miming Marcel Marceau: none of them would be ok. The exclusion zone exists for a reason (indeed, her antics are much of said reason). I just wanted to highlight that what she was doing explicitly goes against the [teachings of the] faith she claims is motivating her actions.

Oh lord, a forced birther who thinks Tate "has some good ideas". Why am i not surprised? Not one bit.

Great catch!

@Blondlashes The most common activities of pro-life groups were found to be quiet or silent prayer, or offering leaflets about charitable support available to women who would like to consider alternative options to abortion.

The level of disingenuousness involved in this paragraph is astounding. How can anyone in their right mind not see that the presence of someone in this situation is intimidating and harassing in and of its own right.

Every day people make decisions that don't necessarily fit with our own moral compass but unless they are breaking the law we don't have a right to publicly judge them or harass/intimidate them for making those decisions.

I am sure there are parts of your life that I or others would judge - do you eat meat, do use air travel, do you keep pets, do you have more than 2 children, do you ever drive a mile or two when you could have walked, do you give to charity, do you not give to charity, have you ever bought fast fashion, have you ever drunk non-fairtrade coffee etc...? There are literally hundreds of things that you do that even though they're perfectly legal, I or someone somewhere may not agree are morally right. If we all pitched up outside your house every day silently praying and handing you leaflets about alternatives as you came and went would you consider that harassment or intimidation or is that ok with you?

As soon as I saw the title for this thread I had an inkling it would be about this particular clinic, I used to live nearby.

There have been problems with these people for ages now, there's been multiple meetings about it and only recently they have put in these regulations that say where they're allowed to stand and pray (which in my opinion are still too close to the clinic).

They are particularly aggressive in their preaching. Aggressive maybe isn't the right word but I have witnessed them sparking debate with young women and girls simply walking past and not even using the clinic. I cross the road rather than walk past them. There was a long period of time that they were constantly standing there and I just don't need that confrontation.

What really doesn't help is that a lot of students from a nearby all girls secondary school often walk right past this clinic and I have frequently seen them trying to preach to young girls, it's all just so wrong. Honestly I'm over the moon she's put herself in a position to get arrested, wish something like this had happened sooner.

@Tater06 I also know this particular clinic and aggressive is exactly the right word to describe these people.

Show us the pictures of women doing that.

No one should be protesting outside of any clinic or health setting regardless of how much they disagree with what is going on inside because bodily autonomy and patient choice applies to all healthcare.

They are clearly not, that was my point.

Although I did link to the wrong post originally - which doesn't help with clarity 😁

Sorry. That was badly worded. I realise that's what you meant, I was trying to be sarcastic about the lack of any such pictures.

I'll blame the dog. He's getting the blame for everything else at the moment 😹

Ah, sorry. 😁

Wait, my post was deleted simply for pointing out that OP also started the Andrew Tate thread and that the may not have the most innocent of intentions?