For pro-life supporters to pray openly outside abortion clinics is ‘abuse and harassment’, Labour MP Fabian Hamilton has claimed.
The pro-abortion MP claimed abortion was an issue of ‘gender equality’, as he backed laws on ‘buffer zones’ around abortion centres. Those who stand outside or near abortion centres, keeping vigil and praying for the mothers and their unborn children, should have the whole rule book thrown at them, he said.
The MP for Leeds North East was quoted in the Yorkshire Evening Post as saying, ‘Anybody that seeks to actively deter the rights of these women to seek medical treatment must face the full extent of the law, under existing harassment laws’.
According to a spokesman from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), his comments are far from the truth: ‘Mr Hamilton is perpetuating the myth that women are being intimidated by the presence of a small number of peaceful people praying near an abortion clinic. Nothing could be further from the truth.
‘Every year hundreds of women have their lives turned round for the better when they decide to keep their baby, after an encounter with a pro-life vigil’.
