Petition for Abortion 'Buffer-Zones' Delivered to Downing St
A Leeds abortion clinic is joining calls for so-called 'buffer zones' to tackle protestors.
A petition calling on Parliament to help stop pregnant women being harassed outside clinics will be delivered to Downing Street today.
Nearly 120,000 people have signed it.
Jason Warriner is the Chief Nurse at the Marie Stopes UK clinic here in Leeds.
He's told Radio Aire that protestors can make an already traumatic experience that much harder:
“It can cause more stress for some women. Obviously it’s a big step making the decision to come along for a termination, so within that it’s recognising all the emotions that the woman goes through. And this can add an extra stress to it.
“It can be very frustrating because we believe women have got a choice and a right to access health care. And nobody should be preventing anyone from accessing health care.”
It follows an incident outside a clinic in London last year, which went viral on social media.
But Andy Stephenson from pro-life group Abort67 is heavily critical of it.
“It’s a direct attack on free speech disguised as a compassionate move for women," he said.
“Our volunteers are extremely peaceful.”