A “buffer zone” banning peaceful pro-life vigils outside an abortion clinic in Ealing has been extended by another three years, Ealing Council has decided.
In April 2018, Ealing Council imposed a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) of 100 metres around a Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane.
As a SPUC spokesperson said at the time, the move was “a bad day” for women and democracy. “For the first time, a council has banned peaceful public acts of witness and freedom of expression.”
The buffer zone, the first of its kind in the UK, censors any pro-life witness, as well as life-saving service, being offered to pregnant women coming to the clinic. Such speech was again deemed “harmful” by local Labour councillor Binda Rai this week.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Buffer zones vilify life-saving actions founded most of all on love. Far from protecting pregnant women, a PSPO robs vulnerable women considering an abortion of any other alternative.
“As we have reported in the past, there are numerous instances when a pro-life vigil could have, and sometimes did, provide a woman with ‘a ray of hope’. ‘Sometimes you do just need somebody to say “there is an alternative” and here’s a number, here’s my number’, as one such woman said retrospectively.
“Ealing Council’s disingenuous decision has nothing to do with hope, but instead libels pro-lifers in order to forward a pro-abortion agenda. Just last year, for example, a peaceful prayer vigil was deliberately mispresented when the simple act of ‘prayer’ was deemed ‘emotional violence’ by one London newspaper – see Daniel Frampton’s blog piece.
“Unfortunately, the glaring distortion of what actually takes place at prayer vigils and other pro-life acts of witness is how the pro-abortion lobby operates.
“But as an extensive Home Office Review found in 2018, so-called ‘aggressive activities’ at pro-life vigils are ‘not the norm’ – and therefore, ‘national buffer zones would not be a proportionate response’, Home Secretary Sajid Javid concluded.”
Similar stories
Ealing council plan to ban peaceful pro-life vigils ‘ a dark day’ for Britain, democracy and freedom of speech - S
“Revoke this unjust decision” on buffer zones pro-lifers tell Manchester City Council leader
Don’t ban “love” pleads London politician opposed to buffer zones
Extraordinary misrepresentation of anti-abortion prayer vigil outside London clinic
Visit our page “Say No to Buffer Zones” here: https://spuc.org.uk/SaveTheRightToSaveLives