The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has condemned the decision by Ealing Council to impose a Public Space Protection Order around the Marie Stopes Centre on Mattock Lane.
Speaking from outside Ealing town hall, where a rally organised by mothers who have been helped by pro-life counsellors outside abortion clinics has been taking place, SPUC’s Alithea Williams said: "This is a bad day for democracy in the UK. For the first time, a council has banned peaceful public acts of witness and freedom of expression.
"It is a truly authoritarian act, and one that so goes against basic freedoms and human rights, that it will surely be very vulnerable to a legal challenge.
"However, what is most shocking is that a Council has voted to stop members of the public offering charitable help to vulnerable women. There are mothers here who have been speaking out about the help they received from the Good Counsel Network which allowed them to keep their babies - babies who are alive today because their mothers were offered another choice. They are devastated that this choice is now going to be denied to other women."
Miss Williams added: "This is also bad news for women as it leaves them at the mercy of the abortion industry. Marie Stopes has an appalling record when it comes to patient care and safety - as is shown by the series of Care Quality Commission reports severely censuring them for a catalogue of abuses and safety violations, as well as a 'culture that worked against patient choice.' Is the ‘choice’ offered by this organisation really the only one Ealing Council wants to be available to women?
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