Marie Stopes: NI’s first private abortion clinic ‘not re-opening’

Marie Stopes: NI's first private abortion clinic 'not re-opening'

By Marie-Louise Connolly, BBC News NI Health Correspondent
9 September 2019

Marie Stopes UK has said it has no plans to resume providing services in Northern Ireland despite anticipated changes in rules around abortion.

The clinic opened in Belfast in 2012, offering medical abortions in early pregnancy.

It closed in December 2017 after the government announced women could access NHS-funded terminations in England.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-49629205

09.09.2019

Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act

Nigeria: Police Accused of Raiding Family Planning Clinic

Police Accused of Raiding Family Planning Clinic

May 23, 2019

Activists in Nigeria have accused police officers of raiding a Marie Stopes clinic in Lagos on May 21. The officers reportedly "harassed the health workers and patients and took away confidential client information".

Marie Stopes Nigeria opened its first clinic in 2009, and describes itself as "becoming one of the few providers of long-acting and permanent contraception in the country".

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/201905230779.html

Anti-abortion activists harassing women at UK clinics during Lent

Anti-abortion activists harassing women at UK clinics during Lent
Clinic staff say protesters are calling women ‘murderers’ and giving out misleading leaflets

Simon Murphy
Mon 8 Apr 2019

Anti-abortion protesters are harassing vulnerable women at UK clinics as they ramp up demonstrations for Lent and are giving out leaflets suggesting that having a termination is harder to deal with than being raped, it has been claimed.

Hardline religious activists, some of whom are part of a so-called “40 Days for Life” campaign, have been targeting women in increasing numbers at 10 clinics across the country in the run-up to Easter, the Guardian has been told.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/08/anti-abortion-activists-harassing-women-at-uk-clinics-during-lent

UK- Police called in after medics attacked by anti abortion campaigners

Police called in after medics attacked by anti abortion campaigners

Laura FitzPatrick
24 FEBRUARY 2019

Police have been called in by medics attacked by pro-life abortion campaigners, as experts warn that social media has made these activists more militant.

It comes ahead of a US-backed campaign that will see vigils held outside 10 UK clinics over the period of lent, for 12 hours a day.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/24/police-called-medics-attacked-anti-abortion-campaigners/

N. Ireland – Police escorted girl (12) to England for abortion after assault, MPs told

Police escorted girl (12) to England for abortion after assault, MPs told

By Michael McHugh
January 26 2019

A 12-year-old victim of sexual assault in Northern Ireland had to travel to England under police escort for an abortion, MPs have been told.

An officer seized samples from the procedure as evidence, said Dawn Purvis, former director of the Marie Stopes pregnancy advice service in Belfast.

The child could not be treated in Northern Ireland due to strict laws prohibiting the procedure in most circumstances.

Continued: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/police-escorted-girl-12-to-england-for-abortion-after-assault-mps-told-37750064.html

Inside Australia’s only clinic providing late surgical abortions

Inside Australia's only clinic providing late surgical abortions

By Hagar Cohen and David Lewis
Sep 7, 2018

The journey to the Marie Stopes clinic in Melbourne's east is a harrowing one for the 200 or so women who go there each year for a procedure denied to them elsewhere.

By the time they reach the building, sitting behind a car park on an unassuming suburban street, they have likely been turned away by multiple doctors and hospitals.

And until the Victorian state government banned the practice in 2015, there was a very real risk of encountering anti-abortion protesters at the entrance.

Continued: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-08/abortion-clinic-providing-late-surgical-abortions/10210656

Allowing English women to take the abortion pill at home is good news – and now we’re coming for you, Northern Ireland

Allowing English women to take the abortion pill at home is good news – and now we're coming for you, Northern Ireland

Harriet Marsden
25 August 2018

As landmark women’s health text Our Bodies, Ourselves put it in 1970, abortion is “our right ... as women to control our own bodies. The existence of any abortion laws (however ‘liberal’) denies this right.”

Those rights are advancing in some parts of the UK, and stalling in others. The latest development is that women in England will soon be able to take an abortion pill at home: a small but significant step forward that many welcome. Yet in Northern Ireland, women still face draconian laws and life in prison for daring to access their reproductive rights.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/abortion-pill-at-home-northern-ireland-pregnancy-a8507811.html

Campaigners await UK decision on abortion clinic buffer zones

Campaigners await UK decision on abortion clinic buffer zones
Pro-choice activists say they expect announcement from Home Office within weeks

Caroline Davies
Mon 13 Aug 2018

Campaigners calling for buffer zones to prevent harassment and abuse of women accessing abortion centres are expecting a Home Office announcement within weeks.

The Labour MP Rupa Huq, who leads a cross-party campaign calling for national legislation following the model of the UK’s first abortion clinic safe zone in Ealing, west London, said the home secretary had pledged an announcement in September.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/13/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-campaigners-await-uk-decision

UK – Decision to ban protests at London abortion clinic upheld

Decision to ban protests at London abortion clinic upheld
Campaigners lose high court challenge over protest-free buffer zone at clinic in Ealing

Sarah Marsh
Mon 2 Jul 2018

A council’s decision to ban anti-abortion protesters from gathering outside a London clinic has been upheld in the high court.

Campaigners lost a legal challenge to a move by Ealing council to create a 100-metre, protest-free “buffer zone” around the Marie Stopes clinic. The council was the first in the country to take such a decision in an attempt to shield women from demonstrators.

continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/02/decision-ban-protests-london-abortion-clinic-upheld-high-court-ealing

Ban on anti-abortion protests at London clinic disproportionate, court hears

Ban on anti-abortion protests at London clinic disproportionate, court hears
Council accused of infringing freedom of speech with ban at Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing

Dan Sabbagh
Thu 7 Jun 2018

An anti-abortion group seeking to overturn the UK’s only exclusion zone around a Marie Stopes clinic, in Ealing, west London, have told judges they believe the council’s actions amounted to an illegal discrimination against their right to free speech and peaceful protest.

Alasdair Henderson, a lawyer representing a woman who is a member of the Good Counsel Network, said that the ban on protesters from being within 100 metres of the clinic should be struck down because the effect on the anti-abortion group was “inherently disproportionate”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/07/anti-abortion-protests-ban-ealing-marie-stopes-clinic-london