UK – Tears & Trauma: Even Lockdown Didn’t Stop Anti-Abortion Protesters

Tears & Trauma: Even Lockdown Didn’t Stop
Anti-Abortion Protesters

Vicky Spratt
28 June 2020

It’s 8.30am and it’s already warm and muggy. 25 degrees worth of warm and muggy
to be precise. A man is shouting, his words fill the sticky air. He repeated
“every child deserves a birthday” over and over again.

He is holding a large homemade sign. It reads ‘Abortion Murders Babies’ in
large black and red lettering. He’s joined by two more men, they also have
signs. One says ‘THOU SHALL NOT MURDER’, the other declares ‘Babies are
MURDERED here’ above a pixelated image of body parts. Hours pass, they stand together.
The shouting continues. Women rush past, accompanied by friends and family,
trying to avoid them.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2020/06/9883832/rupa-huq-abortion-buffer-zones

Bill to ban protests outside abortion clinics backed by MPs at first Commons hurdle

Bill to ban protests outside abortion clinics backed by MPs at first Commons hurdle
But despite support the bill is unlikely to progress without support from the Government

By Oliver Milne, Political Correspondent
24 JUN 2020

A bill to ban protests outside of abortion facilities has passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons.

The measure, which aims to end the intimidation of women on their way into or out of clinics, was passed with cross-party support after being introduced by Labour MP Rupa Huq.

Continued: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/bill-ban-protests-outside-abortion-22245804

UK – MP seeks to ban demonstrations outside abortion clinics

MP seeks to ban demonstrations outside abortion clinics

Jun 24, 2020

A bill seeking to ban demonstrations outside abortion clinics has been proposed by Labour MP Rupa Huq.

Last year, pro-life protesters lost a legal challenge against the UK's first buffer zone implemented around a clinic in Dr Huq's constituency.

Ealing Council said a 100-metre exclusion zone at the Marie Stopes centre had been put in place after women complained of being intimidated.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-53150759

USA – The Fight to Protect Abortion Access Amid the Pandemic

The Fight to Protect Abortion Access Amid the Pandemic

Jordan Smith
June 15 2020

It wasn’t much past 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning in late April, and anti-choice protesters outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, were already cantankerous: There were three men with bullhorns, including one on top of a ladder; a 1,200-watt speaker pointing toward the clinic’s front door; and another protester blowing a shofar. “Welcome to the circus,” said Kim Gibson, a clinic escort who works to keep the mayhem away from patients.

Even as the coronavirus pandemic has gripped the nation (new cases are still on the rise in Mississippi), protesters disregarded Jackson’s stay-at-home order and have consistently failed to wear masks or keep appropriate social distance — not only from one another, but also from patients, whose cars they readily approach in an effort to “counsel” them and hand out anti-abortion propaganda.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/15/coronavirus-pandemic-abortion-acces

15.06.2020

Commentary

Featured

abortion access during pandemic

abortion is essential healthcare

anti-choice abuse

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice hatred

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice protesters

anti-choice restrictions

anti-choice violence

Coleman Boyd

Covid-19 and abortion

Derenda Hancock

Greg Abbott

Hope Medical Group for Women

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

National Abortion Federation

Pink House Defenders

Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas

Sarah Wheat

the Pink House

trust women

Very Rev. Katherine Ragsdale

UK – Labour MP contributes to abortion debate with her baby in her arms

Labour MP contributes to abortion debate with her baby in her arms
Labour’s Stella Creasy was targeted by anti-abortion campaigners during her pregnancy last year.

June 4, 2020

A Labour MP has contributed to a debate on abortion regulation in Northern Ireland while cradling her baby daughter in her arms.

Labour’s Stella Creasy, who has long campaigned for abortion to be decriminalised in Northern Ireland, warned that devolution “doesn’t absolve us of our responsibility to uphold the human rights of every UK citizen”.

Continued: https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/06/04/labour-mp-contributes-to-abortion-debate-with-her-baby-in-her-arms/

04.06.2020

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News

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice intimidation

Abortion Clinic Protests Are Still Happening in the Pandemic: ‘They Accost Patients Face to Face’

Abortion Clinic Protests Are Still Happening in the Pandemic: ‘They Accost Patients Face to Face’
“They don’t social distance. They block, stalk, push, shove, talk, scream. It’s business as usual out there for them.”

by Carter Sherman
May 26 2020

When Kelly Benzin arrived at the Grand Rapids, Michigan, abortion clinic where she works one recent Wednesday morning, everything seemed normal. Even in the midst of the pandemic, the Heritage Clinic for Women had been drawing about five to 15 protesters a day, she said. One was just setting up his chair as Benzin pulled in.

But around 8 a.m., when the clinic officially opened, Benzin realized that about 25 to 35 people had started to gather outside. Soon, they started to approach patients, handing out roses and trying to talk them out of getting abortions.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889nnp/abortion-clinic-protests-are-still-happening-in-the-pandemic-they-accost-patients-face-to-face

U.N. rejects U.S. claim it is using coronavirus to promote abortion

U.N. rejects U.S. claim it is using coronavirus to promote abortion

Michelle Nichols, Reuters
May 21, 2020

NEW YORK — The United Nations rejected on Thursday an accusation by the United States that the world body was using the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to promote access to abortion through its humanitarian response to the deadly global outbreak.

The U.N. is seeking some $6.7 billion for its coronavirus response plan and has so far received $1 billion, of which $172.9 million was given by the United States. A Reuters tally shows the coronavirus, or COVID-19, has infected some 5 million people globally and caused almost 327,000 deaths.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/u-n-rejects-u-s-claim-it-is-using-coronavirus-to-promote-abortion

21.05.2020

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anti-choice intimidation

António Guterres

Covid-19 and abortion

The Anti-Abortion Movement Was Always Built on Lies

The Anti-Abortion Movement Was Always Built on Lies

This week, it was revealed that Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. “Jane Roe,” admitted on her death bed that her late-career anti-abortion crusade was all a ruse funded by the Christian right. Laura Bassett takes a hard look at the house of cards the American anti-abortion movement was built upon.

By Laura Bassett
May 20, 2020

In 1973, the plaintiff “Jane Roe” brought a case to the Supreme Court that would legalize abortion throughout America. So it was quite a surprise when, in the mid-1990s, Roe, whose real name was Norma McCorvey, suddenly emerged as an anti-abortion activist. She wrote a book about her change of heart, spoke at multiple annual March for Life rallies, and even filed a motion in 2003 to get the Supreme Court to re-decide her case. “I deeply regret the damage my original case caused women,” she said at the time. “I want the Supreme Court to examine the evidence and have a spirit of justice for women and children.”

Continued: https://www.gq.com/story/jane-roe-anti-abortion-lies/

UK – Anti-abortion groups using geo-fencing tech to target women inside clinics

Anti-abortion groups using geo-fencing tech to target women inside clinics
Targeted ads, fake websites, and digital dossiers form a range of technologies used by organisations opposed to abortions

By Michael Cogley, Technology Correspondent
21 April 2020

Anti-abortion groups are using “geo-fencing” technology to target ads towards women inside abortion clinics, a new report has found.

The technology creates a virtual boundary around an area that will trigger a response when a mobile phone enters or leaves an area.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/04/21/anti-abortion-groups-using-geo-fencing-tech-target-women-inside/

USA – Abortion storytellers and the harassment they face

Abortion storytellers and the harassment they face

By Steph Herold, opinion contributor
02/18/20

Next month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in June Medical Services v. Gee, the first major abortion-related case to come before the Court since Justice Kavanaugh’s appointment to the bench. The case largely focuses on a Louisiana law designed to close abortion clinics by imposing the exact requirements that the Court declared unconstitutional in the 2016 case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

Yet this time around, abortion opponents are arguing that only patients, not abortion providers (such as Whole Woman’s Health or June Medical Services), should be able to bring these cases and that nothing prevents patients from doing so. This raises an unusual and pertinent question: is it reasonable to expect people seeking time-sensitive, stigmatized health care to drop everything and sue their state?

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/483433-abortion-storytellers-and-the-harassment-they-face