Carmarthen preacher Stephen Green fined for abortion clinic protest

1st February 2024
By James McCarthy & PA Media, BBC News

A preacher who protested outside an abortion clinic has been convicted of breaching a protection order.

Stephen Green, 72, held a sign bearing a religious verse in a part of Ealing, west London, covered by a public spaces protection order (PSPO) last February.

Outside the MSI Reproductive Choices Clinic, it was the first such zone to be introduced in the UK. Green's conviction was welcomed by campaigners who said people were fed-up of seeing behaviour like his.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68174047

01.02.2024

MSI Reproductive Choices

UK – MPs fear watering down of buffer zone rules at abortion clinics

A Labour and Tory MP will later appeal to the home secretary to rethink guidance that will still allow "silent prayer" and protesters to approach vulnerable women.

Serena Barker-Singh
Thursday 1 February 2024

Cross-party MPs will meet with the home secretary today to query the government's plans allowing protesters to engage in "silent prayer" and approach women with leaflets inside buffer zones around abortion clinics.

Despite MPs voting over a year ago to ban these activities, draft guidance released by the Home Office now appears to water down the laws, campaigners have said.

Continued: https://news.sky.com/story/mps-fear-watering-down-of-buffer-zone-rules-at-abortion-clinics-13060906

01.02.2024

News

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice protesters

Religious exemptions to abortion buffer zones law could ‘overturn will of Parliament’

18 January, 2024
Humanists UK

The UK Government has proposed draft guidance for Abortion Safe Access Zones that would effectively overturn the will of Parliament through expansive religious loopholes which would render the legislation incapable of protecting women from abuse and harassment.

In 2022 and 2023, in a resolute response to escalating harassment of women at the hands of evangelical protesters outside abortion clinics, the UK Parliament voted overwhelmingly to establish Safe Access Zones around abortion clinics in England and Wales. These zones were expressly intended to protect women from a barrage of bullying and psychological abuse as they sought access to clinics, ensuring their right to medical care in a safe and dignified environment.

Continued: https://humanists.uk/2024/01/18/religious-exemptions-to-abortion-buffer-zones-law-could-overturn-will-of-parliament/

Tory deputy chair attacks MPs over Northern Ireland abortion law

Tory deputy chair attacks MPs over Northern Ireland abortion law
James Cleverly says calls for Westminster to legislate in Northern Ireland are ‘party political game playing’

Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker
Wed 30 May 2018

Conservative party deputy chair James Cleverly has hit out at MPs campaigning for a change in Northern Irish abortion law, accusing Labour of exploiting the issue for party political gain.

Cleverly made his attack despite the fact that at least 13 female Conservative MPs have publicly supported a change to the law in Northern Ireland, which has some of the most restrictive rules on abortion in the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/30/tory-deputy-chair-attacks-mps-over-northern-ireland-abortion-law