Every year, a US-led international anti-abortion campaign, 40 Days for Life, marches through our streets, before spending 40 days gathered outside clinics to shame women for their reproductive choices.
Each time, as the campaign begins, our midwives brace themselves. But in the UK, this year is different. Last September, the UK government brought laws into force which establish ‘buffer zones’ to protect abortion clinics in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have similar legislation, passed equally democratically by their devolved Parliaments. Buffer zones (also known as ‘safe access zones’) prevent intimidation and obstruction outside abortion clinics. Backed by 77% of people in Britain, they make an enormous difference to women and healthcare workers.
But speaking at the Munich Security Conference, US Vice President JD Vance declared buffer zones to be an example of “thoughtcrime”. In reality, buffer zones mean abortion seekers are no longer called “murderers”, “sinners”, and other unprintable words during what can already be a difficult time. They are no longer photographed or filmed when entering abortion clinics. They are no longer harangued by strangers about decisions they have already made.
Vance claims this popular policy has silenced anti-abortion groups. But walk 150 metres up the road from several of our clinics, and you will see those same anti-abortion groups expressing their views perfectly legally. They have not been silenced. They have not been banned. They have not been censored. They have simply been told to stand a couple of hundred metres away from clinics and hospitals.
These anti-abortion groups claim that what they are doing outside clinics is “consensual.” They claim that women like it when they thrust alarmist leaflets full of false claims into their hands; that women who have been raped are grateful to be told they should carry their pregnancy to term; that domestic abuse and trafficking survivors are happy being filmed.
They are wrong. Before buffer zones, we would hear every day how this behaviour caused distress. One rape survivor told us the anti-choice groups made her feel like she was being violated all over again. Naturally, people can and do discuss their reproductive decisions with the people they trust; their friends, family, healthcare professionals, and, yes, faith groups if they choose. Why would they want the unsolicited opinions of strangers in the street?
In the US, abortion clinics have been bombed and burned down, and anti-abortion campaigners gather outside clinics with guns. Doctors have been assassinated. Would US-led opponents of buffer zones prefer that environment in the UK? Most British people would not.
But there’s a deeper irony here. To Vance, free speech apparently does include the right to harass women (and indeed people of various gender identities) while they access medical care. But free speech does not seem to be a consideration when it comes to gagging doctors about women’s healthcare or restricting scientific research based on ideology.
Meanwhile, the US administration cheers on the unelected Elon Musk as he brags about putting USAID “in the woodchipper”, slashing and burning programmes that save millions of lives in countries that are already bearing the brunt of global wealth inequalities and the climate crisis.
How should the UK respond to this overreach? Firstly, by standing up for reproductive rights everywhere. Keir Starmer and home office minister Jess Philips showed leadership by enforcing buffer zones within months of taking office. A recognition that Britain’s abortion laws are seriously outdated (and that their colonial history can be weaponized by the global anti-rights movement) would also be very welcome.
With an emboldened international anti-rights movement, we know this isn’t the last time we’ll have to make this case. But one thing is for certain: whatever happens now, we won’t back down. We will carry on providing sexual and reproductive healthcare. We will keep insisting that women shouldn’t be harassed while exercising reproductive choice. And we will proudly honour our commitment to diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility in our service provision. No matter what.
