Harassment of women using the Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Mattock Lane, Ealing, London, W5

[betty62]

Hi, some of you might have seen the article in the Ealing Times about the anti-abortionists who hold a daily vigil outside of the clinic on Mattock Lane, and anyone who walks down there will have noticed them: they are the people with the laminated pictures of embryos, the condemnatory signs, inaccurate leaflets and pink and blue rosaries that they offer to the women going into the clinic. There is a counter-group to the anti-abortionists who want the council to take action to stop the vigil on the grounds that the participants are causing harassment, alarm and distress to the women using the clinic and they have launched an e-petition with Ealing Council asking them to take action to remove them. The petition is not about the rights and wrongs of abortion, and everyone agrees that the anti-abortionists have the right to their views, it is simply that they should not be expressing their views in that place. If you agree that the harassment of women who have made the choice to have an abortion is wrong, and live or work in Ealing, please sign the petition and let your friends know - here is the link. Thanks.

ealing.cmis.uk.com/ealing/ePetitions/tabid/96/ID/38/This-petition-calls-for-Ealing-Council-to-end-the-persistent-presence-of-the-anti-abortion-vigil-outside-the-Marie-Stopes-Reproductive-Centre-on-Mattock-Lane-Ealing.aspx

Indeed Pooch. Not that it makes it any more or less abhorrent whatever the age but the only young person I've ever seen with them was a young chap once. At least half of them (probably more) from when I've seen them have been men and the one/s standing by the entrance always seem to be.

We don't engage in arguments with the vigilers as we think that wouldn't help the users of the clinic as it is bad enough that they have to pass by them without walking into an argument between two groups of people.

I should qualify that this is why my friends and I stopped doing so. We did it twice before we were aware of Sister Supporter (possibly before it was set up actually) because we were enraged by the vigil and wanted to do something, but ourselves felt it wasn't appropriate to have these discussions so close to the clinic - although we never "argued" so much as challenged and didn't get abusive at all.

Hi Noloveofmine - sorry if I came across as being critical, that's certainly not what I meant to do.

They do have some younger "pavement counsellers" who are the ones who hand out the leaflets and give the advice. One of the male ones addresses every woman going into the clinic as 'mum', which seems particularly cruel.
GoonBridge - what the petition is asking is for the council to implement a public space protection order for the area which would mean that the vigilers would not be able to hang around in that area harassing the women. As the council owns the land, it should be easy enough for them to do if they want to.

Oh sorry betty I am being hard work here. I did read but obviously didn't comprehend. Thank you.

Not at all betty62. I think all you and Sister Supporter are doing is brilliant and you have lots of supporters!

Those people sound horrendous and it enrages me this is allowed to happen. The council must act on this and it'll be appalling if they don't.

Would sign if I could. Would agree consider second post in AIBU for traffic

I used to live literally next door to the clinic and the protestors were there then- this is 17 years ago. I used to abuse them regularly, especially if I caught them harassing anyone.

I am re-posting the link to the petition as it doesn't show on this page.
Thanks everyone for all the support.

ealing.cmis.uk.com/ealing/ePetitions/tabid/96/ID/38/This-petition-calls-for-Ealing-Council-to-end-the-persistent-presence-of-the-anti-abortion-vigil-outside-the-Marie-Stopes-Reproductive-Centre-on-Mattock-Lane-Ealing.aspx

Ok. I know they are awful, but you can't ban them. They have as much a right to express their opinion as anyone else. Otherwise, it just totalitarian madness

The petition isn't to "ban them", it's to set up a Public Spaces Protection Order. Hardly "totalitarian madness" to try to protect women trying to access the clinic from harassment.

AsignedMentalAtBirth - of course they are entitled to express their opinion but that is not what they are doing; they are harassing the women that use the clinic. If they are unhappy about a woman's right to choose, they should petition their MPs or protest outside parliament. The only reason they protest where they do is to upset the women using the clinic in order to try to prevent them from exercising their choice. They carry pink and blue rosary beads and one woman who used the clinic told me that they asked her what colour rosary she wanted for the child that she was about to kill, How is that anything other than harassment? No one is asking for them to be banned, just for them to be moved away from the entrance to the clinic

I'd sign but I'm nowhere near London. Vile people.

Ok, yes, it's awful.

TBH, I didn't know this was going on in the UK. Horrified

I am for freedom of speech.

Sometimes the right and the left seem to support suppression of speech to support their causes

They carry pink and blue rosary beads and one woman who used the clinic told me that they asked her what colour rosary she wanted for the child that she was about to kill

Fucking hell! They have no clue why the women are choosing to use that clinic and to do that to them...

I signed and I'm certainly not local. I think in London when these sorts of things have been implemented they have a perimeter that the "protesters" have to adhere to or they get moved away.

They do this outside the abortion clinic in Essex where I had a late term abortion as much wanted baby conceived after years of infertility had a condition incompatible with life. I was in such a state already you can imagine how they made me feel

I signed even though I'm in Leicester. I despise anti-choice wingnuts.

Sorry to hear that Yellowheart. Exactly why they're so horrific, uncaring and clinic users need to be able to access services free of their harassment.

Oh Yellowheart I am really sorry to hear that. What you were going through must have been awful and the last thing that you needed was to have to run the gauntlet of them. If the council does what it should, no one will have to go through that again in Ealing, although it won't change anything at other clinics across the country. I think it is the same organisation that runs the vigils at Ealing and Essex (if it's Buckhurst Hill?).

There is also a petition on Change.org with over 160,000 signatures

www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-please-create-a-legal-exclusionary-zone-outside-of-abortion-clinics

Thanks Betty. Signed

Wow I'm local and I had idea the clinic was there let alone that this went on. It's awful! Have signed along with everyone else in my household.

As a side note have any of the councillors been approached? I've always found Julian bell fab to work with and Steve pound is a bit of a plonker but likes to get involved with stuff

icclemunchy agree that it'd be a good idea to approach the councillors for that ward. It isn't Pound's constituency though - Rupa Huq is the MP and I'm pretty sure she's very supportive of the aims of this petition.

You can also support the Back Off campaign here back-off.org/ which has similar aims to create exclusion zones to stop harassment outside clinics.

Various actions available to take from there, including donating to the campaign and/or writing to your MP.

Those placards don't have anything on the ones that the protestors used to wave outside my local Planned Parenthood clinic. Occasionally I would walk in and out of the clinic just to show some solidarity with the poor women who were having to run the gauntlet of the religious bigots.

Hi, all of the councillors have been contacted and we have also been in contact with the community safety team at the town hall as if a public space protection order is implemented, they will be the ones to do it. Rupa Huq has been down to the protest on a few occasions. If a national policy is introduced it will take time as there would need to be changes in legislation. In the meantime, we hope to be able to make the council do something about the clinic in their borough which they could do using existing powers. The anti-abortionists have been there for about 20 years and it's time that the council did something about them.