Health workers react to law change to protect abortion clinics
31 October 2024, 18:12 | Updated: 31 October 2024, 21:10
At a health centre in Brixton it seemed like any other day, but a change in the law has changed their lives and the lives of their patients for the better.
It is the first time in decades - they hope - that no one entering or leaving the abortion clinic will be confronted, harassed or intimidated.
That's because new rules - introduced 18 months ago, that have finally come into force - will provide a 150-metre buffer zone outside any healthcare facility providing abortions.
This means staff and patients will no longer be subject to protests which include religious prayer, emotive and often misleading appeals to change course and sometimes graphic images of aborted foetuses.
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Anyone in breach of the new law will be subject to an unlimited fine.
For the health centre's operations manager, Michaela, it's a huge relief and the culmination of years of campaigning.
She describes getting in early to speak to the team: "I sent a message out… just to say, you know, the day has come and just how proud I am.
"We had our morning huddle, which we do every day anyway, but it was a moment. So we gave ourselves a round of applause this morning.
"It does feel like a big achievement because we've worked so hard for it. And I think the premise of why we've had to work so hard for it is still as baffling to me as it ever will be. But I feel good to finally say that we've done it."
Michaela and her staff had become hardened over the years, but there were still moments when the daily abuse got to them.
She recalls a moment when a vulnerable patient was forced to hide in the back of a car as she left the clinic: "It was quite an emotional day for the staff."
Away from the busy medical hub in a sunny north London living room, recent graduate Lily explains why she has also campaigned for many years on the issue.
Her motivation to secure a change in the law comes from a much more personal experience - she had an abortion at 18 years old.
She said: "I found out I was pregnant in my student hall's kitchen when I was 18. I had just moved to Glasgow... I knew that I wasn't financially, emotionally, able to raise a child… I mean, I was a child myself."
When she finally went to the hospital to go through with the procedure, she was shocked to see activists outside.
"There were about 15 to 20 protesters and they were standing holding leaflets which they were attempting to hand out. They had big placards, with phrases accusing me of being a murderer, among other slurs.
"And it was just really shocking going in, seeing that, and it was very, very intimidating and disorienting as well - because I thought that only happened in America."
