Second London council considers ban on anti-abortion protesters outside clinics

Protesters outside an abortion clinic on Brixton Hill
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Ben Morgan24 January 2018

A second London council is considering banning anti-abortion protesters from women’s health clinics after claims of intimidation towards women and staff.

Lambeth council could be the latest local authority to introduce Public Space Protection Orders to create a buffer zone of 100 metres.

Ealing council is to consult on a similar ban around its Mattock Lane clinic and other London councils are expected to follow suit in moves aimed at counteracting so-called “pro-life” activists who have been picketing clinics.

Lambeth council leader Lib Peck said: “Women seeking access to abortion services in Lambeth have been subject to intimidation and harassment from groups outside the borough’s two abortion clinics. They have faced having to walk past anti-abortion campaigners waving placards with graphic imagery and handing out leaflets with fake or misleading medical information.”

Evidence compiled by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service on behalf of Lambeth council shows campaigners targeting women on 13 occasions in Streatham from September 26 to October 30 last year.

They were said to have “bombarded” those attending clinics with anti-abortion leaflets and behaved in an “intimidating” manner. One staff member claims they were greeted with shouts of “murderer” .

Pro-life campaigners outside the clinic in Ealing
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Mothers with children have also been accosted as they walked past.

One said: “I have, on several occasions, been approached by them wanting my support and telling me how they save these ‘babies’. They have often commented on my children in the buggy and how they help [women] stop making the mistake of killing their babies.”

The Streatham group have been characterised as older and religious.

Further protests have been held at the Marie Stopes clinic in Brixton Hill, including one on May 7, 2016, where police were called over claims of harassment by a small number of activists belonging to the anti-abortion group Abort67.

The Government is reviewing reports of similar actions near clinics after 113 MPs, led by Ealing’s Rupa Huq, wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd calling for buffer zones to be written into law.

A spokeswoman for Abort67 said: “This is a clear case of councils jumping on the bandwagon of Ealing as we haven’t been outside a Lambeth abortion clinic since 2016. “Buffer zones are not about protecting individuals, but about protecting businesses, namely the abortion industry which is championing this.

“These allegations are nothing but hearsay and opinions, and there is no evidence of any harassment taking place – for which the current laws already protect women against.

Our Public Education Displays use banners and leaflets with factual information on abortion that the public has a right to know.”

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