Health professionals react to law change to protect abortion clinics

It looked like a normal day at a medical center in Brixton, but a change in the law has changed their lives and the lives of their patients for the better.

They hope that for the first time in decades, no one entering or leaving an abortion clinic will be confronted, harassed or intimidated.

This is because the new rules, introduced 18 months ago and finally coming into force, will provide a 150-meter buffer zone outside any medical facility where abortions are performed.

That means staff and patients will no longer be subject to protests that include religious prayers, emotional and often misleading calls for a change of course and sometimes graphic images of aborted fetuses.

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Anyone who breaks the new law will be subject to an unlimited fine.

For the medical center’s operations manager, Michaela, it’s a huge relief and the culmination of a years-long campaign.

She describes arriving early to talk to the team: “I sent a message… just to say that this day had come and how proud I was of it.

“We had a morning meeting, which we do every day anyway, but it was a moment. So this morning we applauded ourselves.

“It really feels like a big achievement because we worked so hard for it. And I think the premise of why we had to work so hard for this still baffles me as much as ever. But I feel like it feels good to finally say we did it.”

Michaela and her staff had become bitter over the years, but there were still times when the daily violence took its toll on them.

She recalls the moment a vulnerable patient was forced to hide in the back seat of a car as she left the clinic: “It was a very emotional day for the staff.”

Away from the busy medical centre, in a sunny living room in north London, recent graduate Lily explains why she has also been campaigning on the issue for years.

Her motivation to change the law comes from a much more personal experience: she had an abortion at age 18.

She said: “I found out I was pregnant in the kitchen of my student hall when I was 18. I had just moved to Glasgow… I knew I wasn’t financially or emotionally capable of raising a child… I mean , I was a child myself.”

When she finally went to the hospital to undergo the procedure, she was shocked to see activists on the street.

“There were about 15 to 20 protesters there, and they were standing with leaflets that they were trying to hand out. They had large posters with phrases accusing me of being a murderer, among other insults.

“And it was just a shocking sight, and also very, very frightening and disorienting – because I thought this only happened in America.”

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The change to the law has been a long time coming, initiated by the previous government but implemented by the new Labor administration.

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, who pushed for the change while in opposition, said she was determined to ensure it was “passed as quickly as possible”.

She said: “It was one of those moments where, within a few days of being in this fancy new building (the Home Office), I and essentially all my fellow ministers worked together to make sure that this happened.”

Asked if she was concerned that it had undermined the right to protest, she said that while she would “die in a ditch” for that right, “there is a time and a place.”

“It’s 150 meters and people can feel exactly how they feel and they can protest in front of parliament and they have an absolute right to do so. And I would fight for their right to do this. But this is about protecting women.”