Anti-Abortion Protests Have Been Banned For The First Time By This London Council

‘It happened two years ago but it feels like it only happened yesterday’ says Amara*, now 23. She’s remembering what happened when she went for an initial abortion consultation at the Marie Stopes clinic in Birmingham. ‘It was the first time I’d ever gone anywhere like that’ she says of her initial appointment at the clinic and when I got there, there were two women standing outside…they handed me a leaflet and I nearly turned back because I was already feeling guilty for some reason.’ The leaflet in question contained anti-abortion misinformation and propaganda.

All over the United Kingdom, the presence of anti-abortion protestors (who describe themselves as counsellors) like the ones Amara encountered is felt as intimidating and harassing by the women who have to run their gauntlet on the way to access abortion services. Despite this, they are legally allowed to stand outside abortion clinics because their right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression is enshrined in law.

However, last night one council in London took action in an attempt to protect women and clinic staff from harassment. Ealing Council unanimously voted in favour of implementing the UK’s first buffer zone around their local clinic.

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The decision was taken after evidence was submitted to the council which Katherine O’Brien of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service says clearly demonstrated that ‘these protesters have had a hugely detrimental impact on women accessing the clinic, the staff providing their care, and local residents’. More than 300 people wrote to the council describing the so-called ‘pro-life protesters’ as ‘intimidating and harassing’. Ealing Council’s cabinet were then presented with a report which concluded that attempts to negotiate with the protestors had been unsuccessful, and so a PSPO (public spaces protection order under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act) was needed.

Amara explains that encountering anti-abortion protestors in Birmingham at what was already a sensitive time compounded feelings of ‘guilt’ which, she says, she hadn’t expected to feel. There is still, she says, a stigma surrounding abortion which makes women feel wrong for doing something they know to be right. ‘I suppose’ she says ‘I was a bit embarrassed for getting myself into the situation in the first place…I know these feelings were unjustified but I still felt uncomfortable’.

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Once inside the clinic, Amara says that ‘the receptionist and all staff were so comforting and supportive’ which put her at ease. She told her boyfriend about the protestors over the phone after her appointment and says ‘he was so angry about them, he refused to let me go alone next time’. Those who wait outside abortion clinics do not like to be called ‘anti-abortion protestors’. Sometimes they refer to themselves as counsellors and sometimes they say ‘they are protecting women’ when, in fact, they are doing anything but.

The point as enforced by Ealing Council’s ban, however, is that no woman should need to be accompanied by a partner or chaperone when seeking abortion services. This is a) because not all women will have someone that can go with them and b) because it’s a woman’s right to go alone if that’s what she wants and she should be able to do so without fear of harassment.

Anna Veglio-White is a lifelong Ealing resident and founder of Sister Supporter, a pro-choice group which has campaigned for the implementation of a buffer zone around the Ealing clinic for over two years as well as consulting with the council and offering support services for women using the clinic (including escorting to and from their appointments). Following the news that her campaign for a buffer zone had been successful, she tells The Debrief that this is ‘an amazing first step’ which will pave the way for ensuring that women, like Amara, who need to access an abortion are able to do so freely, comfortably and without intimidation.

‘We already have another 9 councils who are in the process of getting a PSPO’ she explains, ‘the goal is to change national legislation because this affects over 100 clinics across the UK’.

While Veglio-White is grateful to Ealing council who, as she puts it, have done their ‘due diligence big time’ she tells The Debrief that there is more to be done, including a legal challenge. ‘It’s not perfect’ she says of the buffer zone ‘there is still a designated area [for protestors] within the safe zone but now, at least, it’s 100 meters away from the entrance and away from the main routes in –bus and tube etc.’

Abortion has been legal in England, Wales and Scotland since the 1967 Abortion Act came into force (however it remains illegal in Northern Ireland). And yet, still those who are anti-abortion are free to protest outside clinics. Why has more not been done about this? ‘I think it’s because this is an issue that affects women’ says Veglio-White ‘I often use the metaphor that if it was a Terrance Higgins clinic which was treating men for aids and there were homophobic protestors outside, they would be moved on.’

‘The prevailing attitude is still “oh silly girl who got knocked up”,’ Veglio-White reflects ‘and until last night the right to reproductive autonomy was still seen as lesser than someone’s right to religious freedom or to protest. When in history has someone’s freedom of speech ever superseded someone’s physical and mental wellbeing? I don’t know why it has in this situation.’

Abortion is legal in this country and has been for some time, so what does it have to do with free speech? At Ealing Council’s vote last night, Veglio-White says, the protestors came to argue that what they do is in women’s interest. ‘They still say they’re there to offer help to women…. last night they came with a sign which sad “Say No To Coerced Abortion” but, come on, nobody is pro “coerced abortion”. Inside the clinic there are trained counsellors and these people intimidate women, sometimes they just walk away. This has serious and even dangerous implications for their physical and mental health because abortion is a time sensitive issue under any circumstances.’

Sister Supporter now have a branch in Manchester and will continue to fight for buffer zones and further protections in Ealing and beyond. ‘There’s a group called Helpers of God’s Precious Infants’ who do a monthly procession at different places around the country’ Veglio-White says, ‘they’ll do mass at a nearby church and then do a procession, ending at the clinic. There can be anywhere between 80 to 100 of them, including monks and nuns’. This is what groups like Sister Supporter are fighting against.

‘The protests in Ealing are sadly not isolated incidents’ Katherine O’Brien of BPAS points out, ‘on a daily basis, women across the country are being confronted by increasingly aggressive groups of protesters as they try to access safe, legal healthcare. This isn't about the rights and wrongs of abortion - this is about the harassment of women. The government has a duty to provide all women with the same level of protection that will now be offered in Ealing, and must bring forward legislation to implement buffer zones nationally. We urge the government to do so as a matter of urgency, to ensure that Ealing protesters are not permitted to take their campaign of intimidation to another healthcare clinic’.

Amara still lives in Birmingham, where no buffer zones have been created so far. What would it mean to her if similar provisions were made in her area? ‘I think there should be an enforced ban on protestors outside the clinics’ she says ‘although I agree that everyone is entitled to believe what they believe, it should never directly interfere with someone, or their decision’. She reflects that if it hadn’t been for the ‘lovely staff and the support’ she received once inside the clinic, she would have found getting an abortion ‘a lot harder to deal with.’ She explains that the presence of protestors was upsetting enough for her but wonders how it might impact someone who was in a ‘more difficult situation’ than her; ‘you never know someone's story or background’ she says ‘no matter what the reason [for getting an abortion] everyone has the right to make their own decision and do what's best for themselves. It was already hard without someone else trying to make me feel worse about it. I really do hope there is an enforcement on banning these protestors to create a safer and much more comfortable environment for other women’.

*Names have been changed

Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.