Stop anti-choice harassment!

Submitted by Matthew on 25 April, 2012 - 7:35

On Saturday 21 April, Feminist Fightback and other pro-choice activists tried to prevent anti-abortion extremists from marching to a Marie Stopes clinic in Woodford, Essex.

A group calling themselves the “Helpers of God's Precious Infants” attempted to stop women from attending their appointment at the clinic. They held up images of foetuses and blocked one side of the road, handing out flyers which claimed that abortion will “damage your maternal instinct and ... bonding process with any other children you have” and can lead to “alcohol, drug abuse and eating disorders.”

When feminist activists attempted to intervene to stop this harassment they were met with aggression. One pro-choice activist was head butted by a particularly zealous “pro-lifer.”

Soon after reaching the clinic Feminist Fightback decided to leave in order to reduce disruption for service users.

Such extremist tactics, imported from the United States, have been on the rise in the UK in recent months. Another abortion clinic in Bloomsbury, London was targeted throughout the whole of March by the 40 Days for Life campaign, which used similar tactics of intimidation and harassment.

Feminists and the pro-choice movement are now stepping up to take on this kind of harassment. One of these activists, Katie Cruz from Feminist Fightback, comments that “these extremists are not simply expressing their opinion. They are preventing women from accessing health services and spreading dangerous misinformation. It is a woman’s right to choose whether or not to continue with a pregnancy. We need to remember why women fought for the legalisation of abortion.

“Before the 1967 Abortion Act women were forced to resort to dangerous methods of termination. Today 1 in 8 women die undergoing unsafe backstreet abortions in places where it is still illegal.”

Feminist Fightback

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