This week, the Guardian reported that the US-based anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has significantly expanded activities and spending in the UK. The ADF’s UK branch is funding the legal case of a woman in Bournemouth who has been accused of breaching a Safe Access Zone. Safe Access Zones are legally protected areas which prevent anti-choice groups from harassing people as they access abortion services.
This report comes after US Vice President, JD Vance, made a series of misleading claims about Safe Access Zones in February in a speech to the Munich Security Conference. The US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (DRL) posted a statement on X last week which was critical of Safe Access Zones.
No one should face anti-choice harassment or intimidation when accessing or providing abortion care.
Safe Access Zones are designed to prevent anti-choice groups from influencing, obstructing, or harassing anyone accessing abortion care. They only restrict this activity directly outside clinics, hospitals, or any other premises providing abortion. They were introduced through a transparent, democratic process and are backed by 77% of British people.
Elected officials in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Northern Ireland passed legislation that introduced Safe Access Zones in each nation. Some local authorities in England had already introduced a local Safe Access Zone before the national legislation covering England and Wales was finally implemented in October 2024.
Commenting on this activity from US groups, Louise McCudden, UK Head of External Affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, said:
“Most people in the UK are pro-choice and vote for pro-choice policies.
“Before Safe Access Zones were implemented last year, the behaviour we saw outside our clinics included spitting, calling women “murderers” and physically blocking people from entering our clinics. We make no apology for protecting women from that kind of abuse.
“In the US, abortion clinics have been bombed and burned down, and anti-abortion campaigners have been known to gather outside clinics with guns. Doctors have been assassinated. Perhaps US-led anti-choice groups would prefer that environment here. Most people in the UK would not.”
Notes to Editors
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