Sister Supporter campaign to ban pro-life vigil outside Ealing abortion clinic surpasses 1,500 signatures

Immediately, she was approached by a pro-life activist with rosaries in one hand and a leaflet in another, which proclaimed: “Pregnant… Not sure what to do? We’ll help.”

But when she looked up she saw a wall of pink vests with the words ‘PRO-CHOICE’ emblazoned on the back.

Such is the contrast that has occupied the grassy patch outside Marie Stopes on Mattock Lane for the last eighteen months.

Vigils are held here six days a week by pro-life groups, the Good Counsel Network and the Helpers’ of God's Precious Infants – who pray for the women attending appointments.

Eighteen months ago, they were joined by pro-choice campaign group Sister Supporter.

The two groups confront each other outside Marie Stopes every Saturday morning, polar in their views, but united in that they do not want to be there.

As Tanya Taylor, 26, from Sister Supporter, said: "I just hope that it stops. We don't even want to be here either. No one should be here."

Ms Taylor, of Isleworth, began volunteering with the group last year after she saw pro-life protesters at another clinic when she brought her friend to an appointment.

She said: "She's the type of person who at the time she was angry and shouting at them but there was a girl next to her bursting into tears, visibly upset.

“And obviously not everyone is going to be strong enough to tell them to f- off and also it's the last thing you need when you're going into an appointment like this.

“It just shouldn't be allowed to happen."

Tanya's pro-choice pug Betty also attends the weekly protests

The group are now proposing a more radical change than counter-protest.

Last week they launched a petition to Ealing Council to erect a Public Space Protection Order on the green outside the clinic.

A PSPO is an order which deals with a nuisance in an area that is seen to be having a detrimental effect on the community.

Anna Veglio-White, 25, from Sister Supporter said: “This would be the first of its kind to be used in this way.

“We’re arguing that they are repeatedly engaging in behaviours that are causing distress to local residents and it’s detrimental to the lives of people living here.”

Ms Veglio-White said that as a result of the pro-life groups’ activity, women have been brought to tears and missed their appointments – a claim which the Good Counsel Network deny.

Photos taken outside the clinic on May 5 2017 show pro-life groups holding signs reading ‘give your baby a present, a birthday’ and ‘thou shalt not kill’ but it is unclear which of the pro-life groups this is.

A pro-life group stands outside the clinic on Mattock Lane on May 5, 2017

It is this kind of behaviour Sister Supporter believe amounts to harassment and needs to stop.

However, Lorraine, of Good Counsel Network, said: “We do not judge, condemn or harass anybody. If a woman does not want to talk to us they just ignore us and enter the clinic.

“Many women and sometimes their partners have been moved by the fact that we care for them and are praying and offering help to strangers and their unborn babies.

“Some of them see it as a sign from God not to abort their babies.”

But after just a week of campaigning, on Saturday, July 1, Sister Supporter reached 1,500 signatures on their petition, which allows it to be debated in the council.

Fiona Gwatkin, 69, of Swyncombe Avenue, who used to work in a family planning clinic before she began volunteering with the group, said:  “We made it! That’s absolutely fantastic – that’s so good.

“At least then the council will look at it and it has been done in a way that’s right and correct.”

Fiona stands with some of the pro-choice signs that Sister Supporter use

On the same day two members of the Good Counsel Network, who were holding a vigil, stood at each entrance to the clinic handing out leaflets.

The leaflets offer ‘counselling and alternatives to abortion’ alongside ‘sound medical advice’ and also cite potential health implications of an abortion, including breast cancer.

The leaflet handed out by Good Counsel Network at the vigil 

However, on the NHS Choices website it states: “There is no link between having an abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer.”

Clare McCullough, of the Good Counsel Network, said: “We are aware that the NHS do not accept the many studies suggesting a possible link between abortion and breast cancer, but we cannot hide them from women just because they choose to.”

She cites a number of worldwide studies that contradict this which are not pro-life in origin.

It was fifty years ago this year that the Abortion Act 1967 made abortion legal in England, Wales and Scotland.

But the conversation is still more topical than ever with Donald Trump’s defunding of Planned Parenthood in America and just last week women from Northern Ireland were given the right to have abortions funded by the NHS in England.

This petition may bring a new element to the debate and if the PSPO is granted by the council, Ealing could pave the way as a model for many other clinics across the country.