Javid scraps plans to create ‘safe zones’ outside abortion clinics

PLANS for nationwide “buffer zones” around abortion clinics have been scrapped, the Home Secretary has announced, as a review found most protesters just give out leaflets and pray.

A call for evidence launched in January suggested new legislation after concerns were raised about aggressive anti-abortion protesters who harassed women and staff outside clinics.

But Sajid Javid said the consultation found that most demonstrations were “more passive in nature”.

“The main activities reported to us that take place during protests include praying, displaying banners and handing out leaflets,” he said in a written statement to Parliament.

The review found that 36 of the 363 hospitals and clinics in England and Wales that carried out abortions had been targeted by protesters.

Respondents also described “upsetting examples of harassment”, he added, including “handing out model foetuses, displaying graphic images, following people, blocking their paths and even assaulting them”, but these activities were “not the norm”.

He said the review showed that national legislation “would not be a proportionate

‘Where a crime is committed the police have the powers to act so that people feel protected’

response”, adding that existing law allows police to impose conditions on demonstrations and arrest harassers.

“I am adamant that where a crime is committed, the police have the powers to act so that people feel protected,” the Home Secretary continued.

He added that the issue would remain under review.

The consultation was launched after abortion clinics said women had been grabbed, called “mummy” and told by protesters that they would die.

Staff had also been followed home and sent letters addressed “to the murderers of babies”, John Hansen-brevetti, clinical governance and quality lead for abortion provider Marie Stopes, told the home affairs select committee in December last year.

Some councils have introduced their own “safe zones” around clinics, with the first, Ealing Council, implementing a Public Spaces Protection Order around a Marie Stopes facility in April.

Richard Bentley, managing director at Marie Stopes UK, said: “We don’t agree that this is the right decision. Asking councils to use Public Space Protection Orders to manage harassment on a clinic-by-clinic basis is a step forward, but it can only ever be a sticking plaster.”

Mr Javid, however, said there was evidence that this approach had been “effective”.