18 September 2024
Today, 18 September 2024, the Home Office has announced that law introducing safe access zones around abortion clinics and hospitals which provide abortion services will be brought into force from 31st October 2024. These zones will move anti-abortion protesters back 150 metres away from sites providing abortion care.
BPAS has led the Back Off campaign to introduce safe access zones for more than 10 years - and spearheaded the abortion sector's work to bring these measures into law.
In response to the announcement, Heidi Stewart, CEO of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said:
“We welcome the implementation of safe access zones in England and Wales, which can’t come soon enough. For years our staff and the women we care for have endured anti-abortion fanatics standing outside clinics for hours on end staring at them accessing or going to provide private medical care, stopping them outside and telling them that abortion is murder, handing out leaflets falsely that abortion causes breast cancer, wearing body cameras, and displaying graphic and distressing posters. We and Parliament have been clear that none of this behaviour is acceptable outside a medical service.
“We are hopeful that the Home Office have recognised our concerns about implementation and taken into account the views of abortion providers, violence against women and girls groups, and leading medical bodies reminding them that the law is designed to address the harm caused by so-called silent prayer and ‘consensual communication’. For the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of women accessing healthcare, we must ensure that all forms of harassment are prohibited outside abortion clinics.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact Georgina O’Reilly, BPAS Associate Director of Campaigns and Communications (maternity cover), on georgina.oreilly@bpas.org or 07384 891886.
About BPAS
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, is a charity that sees over 100,000 women a year for reproductive healthcare services including pregnancy counselling, abortion care, miscarriage management and contraception at clinics across Great Britain.
BPAS exists to further women’s reproductive choices. We believe all women should have the right to make their own decisions in and around pregnancy, from the contraception they use to avoid pregnancy right the way through to how they decide to feed their newborn baby, with access to evidence-based information to underpin their choices and high-quality services and support to exercise them.
BPAS also runs the Centre for Reproductive Research and Communication, CRRC. Through rigorous multidisciplinary research and impactful communication, the CRRC aims to inform policy, practice, and public discourse. You can find out more here.