Every woman deserves to be able to make this decision in a safe and secure environment, free from harassment and intimidation.
In recent months many anti-abortion groups, such as Abort67 and 40 Days for Life have encouraged people to protest outside abortion clinics. This is a direct violation of the rights of women seeking abortions to access the healthcare they need free from being harassed and intimidated. The health care workers who are working within these clinic environments also deserve to be able to do their vital work without stress or fear. In some centres across the country the staff don’t feel able to come to work and the clinics are at risk of closure because of how bad these protest situations have become.
The Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has called for the government to take additional measures to prevent this harassment. Ms Cooper’s proposal is that we follow the lead of countries such as the US, Canada and France, where buffer zones are enforced around abortion clinics to prevent protests being held directly outside of their doors in a way that can be deemed to be frightening and intimidating. These measures don’t prevent the protestors right to protest, but they do protect the already vulnerable and emotional women accessing these abortion services from being intimated quite so directly.
132 wholly supports this proposal as part of its commitment to providing pregnancy termination services to the women what want them in an environment that is safe, supportive and non-judgemental. 132 Healthwise also believes that restrictions should be in place to prevent the filming and photography of its patients as they are entering and leaving their clinics, as this is a direct violation of their confidentiality. 132 Healthwise calls for an end to the kind of hysteric abuse that we have seen imported from America from continuing to take place outside of Britain’s abortion clinics.