Health workers react to law change to protect abortion clinics

At a health centre in Brixton it seemed like any other day, but a change in the law has changed their lives and the lives of their patients for the better.

It is the first time in decades – they hope – that no one entering or leaving the abortion clinic will be confronted, harassed or intimidated.

That’s because new rules – introduced 18 months ago, that have finally come into force – will provide a 150-metre buffer zone outside any healthcare facility providing abortions.

This means staff and patients will no longer be subject to protests which include religious prayer, emotive and often misleading appeals to change course and sometimes graphic images of aborted foetuses.

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Anyone in breach of the new law will be subject to an unlimited fine.

For the health centre’s operations manager, Michaela, it’s a huge relief and the culmination of years of campaigning.

She describes getting in early to speak to the team: “I sent a message out… just to say, you know, the day has come and just how proud I am.

“We had our morning huddle, which we do every day anyway, but it was a moment. So we gave ourselves a round of applause this morning.

“It does feel like a big achievement because we’ve worked so hard for it. And I think the premise of why we’ve had to work so hard for it is still as baffling to me as it ever will be. But I feel good to finally say that we’ve done it.”

Michaela and her staff had become hardened over the years, but there were still moments when the daily abuse got to them.

She recalls a moment when a vulnerable patient was forced to hide in the back of a car as she left the clinic: “It was quite an emotional day for the staff.”

Away from the busy medical hub in a sunny north London living room, recent graduate Lily explains why she has also campaigned for many years on the issue.

Her motivation to secure a change in the law comes from a much more personal experience – she had an abortion at 18 years old.

She said: “I found out I was pregnant in my student hall’s kitchen when I was 18. I had just moved to Glasgow… I knew that I wasn’t financially, emotionally, able to raise a child… I mean, I was a child myself.”

When she finally went to the hospital to go through with the procedure, she was shocked to see activists outside.

“There were about 15 to 20 protesters and they were standing holding leaflets which they were attempting to hand out. They had big placards, with phrases accusing me of being a murderer, among other slurs.

“And it was just really shocking going in, seeing that, and it was very, very intimidating and disorienting as well – because I thought that only happened in America.”

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The law change has been a long time coming, initiated by the previous government but implemented by the new Labour administration.

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, who pushed for the change whilst in opposition, said she was determined to make sure it was “enacted as quickly as possible”.

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She said: “This was one of the things that within days of being in this new fancy building [the Home Office], myself and in fact all my ministerial colleagues, we worked together to make sure that this happened.”

Asked if she was concerned that it had eroded the right to protest, she replied that whilst she would “die in a ditch” for that right, “there is a time and a place”.

“It’s 150 metres and people can feel exactly how they feel and they can have a protest outside parliament and they are absolutely entitled to. And I would fight for their right to do that. But this is about protecting women.”