Fury at year-long Home Office delay over protest buffer zones at UK abortion clinics

Pro-choice MPs and activists have expressed frustration at the government’s inability to introduce a law on buffer zones around abortion clinics, a year after 297 MPs voted in favor of the zones and as women face a new wave of protests when they gain access to reproductive care.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior told the newspaper Observer that timelines would be confirmed “in due course”, but declined to explain why the law had not yet come into force and could not confirm whether a consultation on safe access zone legislation had begun.

Labor MP Stella Creasy, who has been targeted by anti-abortion protesters, called on the government to intervene urgently. “The Interior Ministry doesn’t even have the courtesy to come up with a decent excuse for why they are ignoring that vote or why they are blocking in the bill this loophole for women’s right to have an abortion in peace,” she said. Creasy. the Observer.

Conservative MP and chair of the women and equalities committee Caroline Nokes shares Creasy’s concerns. “The will of the house was very clear: we want women who have access to healthcare to be protected from aggressive protest. It is not clear why the Ministry of Interior has not even made preparations for the introduction of buffer zones involving the affected clinics. “I am disappointed that women don’t seem to be the priority here,” she said.

The Safe Access Zones Act was part of the Public Order Act, which received royal assent in May. At least 15 clinics have since faced protests from anti-abortion groups, including a man who entered a waiting room and groups that displayed graphic images of aborted fetuses on a 15-foot banner.

With no date yet set for the law’s entry into force, abortion providers fear that Interior Minister Suella Braverman’s views on abortion are behind the delay.

She voted against safe access zones and has a history of opposing the liberalization of abortion access. “Given that the Home Secretary and her minister overseeing the law opposed this legislation, one can only wonder what the constitutional implications are of trying to deny the will of Parliament in this way.” , Creasy said.

“The point of a free vote is that decisions are made by the conscience of individual MPs, not by the government deciding what they want to do with these vital laws,” said Rachael Clarke, chief of staff at Britain’s Maternity Advice Service. “This bill was overwhelmingly supported, with a majority of MPs from all major parties agreeing. There is no justification for complete silence from the Home Secretary.”

Braverman’s parliamentary allies Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger voted against introducing the zones, as did numerous Conservatives who have expressed anti-abortion views, such as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Fiona Bruce. The Minister for Women, Maria Caulfield, also voted against.

Louise McCudden, UK head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, told the Observer: “We are dismayed by the lack of involvement from the Home Office on the timeline for implementing safe access zones.”

There are also concerns that an anti-abortion movement, emboldened by its success in the US, is putting pressure on the government not to introduce the new law.

Abortion clinics in the UK have been targeted by protesters linked to US organization 40 Days for Life, which is calling on its members to take part in a 40-day ‘vigil’ outside reproductive health centers from September 28 to November 5. The website mentions protests in a dozen British cities.

Women have said they felt anxious and scared when walking past protesters, with one woman describing how men “became aggressive and shouted in my face”.

The international director of 40 Days for Life is Robert Colquhoun, who sits on the board of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform UK, the anti-abortion group that displayed explicit anti-abortion images outside Creasy’s constituency office in 2019.

The Home Office said: “It is unacceptable for anyone to feel harassed or intimidated. Police and local authorities have the power to limit harmful protests and we expect them to take action.”