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.

Pretty obvious that she staged the whole thing so that she could garner the "Arrested for silently praying" headlines. Hence the conveniently-placed person who was able to record the whole interaction.

standing silently on the pavement is considered intimidation then that's a very low bar and has implications for other areas of life

Doesn’t it just. It’s only a low bar if you wilfully ignore nuance and context.

Would you be happy for police to be powerless to remove a stalker with a restraining order who was ‘just’ standing on a pavement outside their victims house? Are you happy for convicted paedophiles to ‘just’ stand on the pavement outside schools and for police to have no power?

Exclusion zones grant the police powers that speed the process of moving on individuals who pose problems so they can escalate in cases like this woman.

I work directly with women having abortions, some late due to foetal abnormalities, I am delighted she was arrested. As someone said up thread go and pray in a church or at home. These families are devastated enough without public piety protests.

She deliberately broke the exclusion one so deserves everything she gets.

The 'silent prayer' is emotional blackmail.

*zone

Don’t these losers who have time to picket abortion clinics have jobs?! How do they have all the free time in the middle of the day?

Your faux naivety makes me wonder if you're a sympathiser of the women in question OP and just wanted a way to push the agenda?

"That being forced to look in the eye someone who disagrees with you means you no longer have a "safe space"?"

Why should anyone be forced to look someone in the eye? That sentence alone screams moral judgement. And no woman entering an abortion clinic should be forced to look anyone in the eye. No one else is entitled to know why that woman has chosen to abort their baby.

The women going into the clinics deserve to do so without harassment of any kind. I'm glad exclusion zones are there, but disappointed that they are needed. Harassment of any kind is wrong.

Fox News isn’t allowed to be classed as a news channel in the US because it doesn’t meet the standards - instead it’s classed as entertainment - NOTHING on there is unbiased reporting it’s a right wing propaganda machine.

Suggest you check with a second or third source for any story from Fox which seems outrageous.

Doesn’t it just. It’s only a low bar if you wilfully ignore nuance and context.

Would you be happy for police to be powerless to remove a stalker with a restraining order who was ‘just’ standing on a pavement outside their victims house? Are you happy for convicted paedophiles to ‘just’ stand on the pavement outside schools and for police to have no power?

Exclusion zones grant the police powers that speed the process of moving on individuals who pose problems so they can escalate in cases like this woman.

^^This.

Great post

It’s a fucking Fox News link - why would you expect measured reporting from them?

Oh fuck off you lying twat.

Amen.

Of course she is. Anti-abortion campaigners think that because MN skews gender-critical, they have a way in for all manner of other anti-woman campaigns.

@bagthoughts she was not silently praying. She was being a c#nt, a bully and harassing women who are at a pretty damned low point.
Dont believe everything you read in the papers. Don’t be so naive.
She deserves a good thrashing.

Yes this. It's such transparent bullshit.

also think many posters have some cognitive dissonance here. To suggwst thst some points of view are so terrible, that peopl shouldn't be allowed to stand there silently thinking them? That being forced to look in the eye someone who disagrees with you means you no longer have a "safe space"?

I think you are being deliberately ingenuous

she is deliberately trying to intimidate women who are making a hard decision. And that is despicable. She’s a nasty bully.

Why should anyone be “forced to look in the eye someone who disagrees with you”? That’s bullying too.

the real question is “why does this woman think the law does not apply to her?”

and the answer is “because she is so puffed up with her own self importance, she considers herself above the law”.

clearly she gets some sort of perverted kick from intimidating vulnerable women. She is obviously deeply insecure, nasty and stupid.

Well if it is then you would have to presume some kind of equivalence? Are gender critical women hanging about outside the doors of clinics for transitioners waving placards, praying and yelling? Does this happen so often that we need to legislate for gender critical women to avoid hackling vulnerable individuals attempting to access medical treatment?

A classic “if a headline sounds stupid there’s definitely more to the story”.

Many years ago i had an appointment and I was told on the phone beforehand to not worry about and ignore the people who would be outside the clinic. I was warned they had images and that I should ‘walk past quickly head down ‘ I was so anxious and worried about it that I cancelled my appt . I had severe HG and it and been torture to come to that decision only to have to then do a complete u turn and suffer (I really really suffered I was so ill). These people shouldn’t be there it’s just not fair they can get their views across in so many other ways but near clinics is not the place

From the arrested woman's own article

I run the pro-life campaign “40 Days for Life Birmingham”

She's the leader of the group that harasses women outside clinics.

I'm alone if we made patients from other branches of medicine "look someone in the eye" before we'd let them have treatment? Want your insulin, then you need to walk past Jenny who opposes all forms of animal testing and look her in the eye while you collect that prescription. Want some chemo for your cancer? You'll have to go past Steve who thinks essential oils are rhe cure for everything. Want to get your child vaccinated? You'll need to walk past this mob from Us4Them who are holding signs saying its poison and you're a murder.

Abortion is health care and there should be no value judgements placed upon it.

*imagine if

Woman is a batshit attention/seeking weirdo.