Why doesn't any church hold funeral services for these "unborn children" following miscarriages, then? Is it because, in fact, they only recognise the separate "life" of a foetus when it affords them an opportunity to oppress and coerce women? Neither the law nor any church (unless they wish to make their hypocrisy even more obvious than is already apparent) recognises the end of a pregnancy as murder, whether it's a doctor who does it, or God, who terminates far more pregnancies than abortionists, because of all that "moving in a mysterious way". Anti-choice hypocrites who bully and intimidate desperate women make me sick.

A woman's right to choose what she does with her body - and what happens to her body - is a human right that must be defended. No-one, other than the woman herself, has the right or authority to make this decision. As for the delights of the 40 days for life? "Judge not lest ye be judged". This does not exclude you, people, regardless of whether you consider yourself to be acting "in God's name". You can justify a lot of crazy shit by using this blanket statement (and many have/do).

Came here from your link on The Guardian. Glad to see someone's counter-acting what 40 Days for Life and other groups have been doing. The anti-choice agenda is becoming worryingly outspoken recently and is spreading twisted 'facts' (and sometimes complete falsehoods) around with it. The leaflets reminded me of the episode of Family Guy with the Opal Ring Crusade (worth watching if you haven't already).

Keep up the good work!

Some months back, I tried to talk with the 40 days protesters at an evening vigil in order to make a podcast and most of them were unintelligible. Some of them did not know which clinic they were at. Others talked of embracing and loving everyone in a way that allowed for no real life situations to be examined and given proper attention. There were prayers (I recognised the cadences of the Catholic Rosary) and terms such as the 'Slaughter of the Innocents' were used. There seemed to be no sense of proportion about anything and certainly no awareness that the civil rights of women were being infringed by their carry on.
A few of them seemed to my (albeit untrained but not totally inexperienced) eye, to be a little wobbly on the mental health front. I don't mean that unkindly, but I suspect that people's vulnerabilities are being exploited to get them to make up the numbers. I think that the protesters turn up there because someone has told them that it is the right thing to do.
I talked to people who live and work in the area who said that, in the daytime, there is a picket outside the clinic and that sometimes it is even outside the wrong building so that people who are just going to work in an unrelated building find a plastic foetus thrown down on the ground in front of them.
I can't help wondering why there is no civil restraint out on the 40 day protesters, who are obviously behaving in a way that causes public offence, inhibits people's right to access a legitimate health service and are causing a public nuisance. In my experience of going on even quite small demonstrations, police often set limits on where people can stand and intervene at the first sign of any offence being caused to passers by, let alone people accessing health services.
I don't know that the tactic of turning up to outshout these people is at all helpful - although it is necessary to do something to protect vulnerable women from the pontificating by strangers who think it is their right to judge and harass (even the wrong people) in their 'good' cause.
Should we not be requiring the state to step in an protect the right to access services without impediment by hostile people who should be directing their argument elsewhere? The Metropolitan Police Authority is consulting on its priorities for the next few years. Perhaps people should ask them to take action again this sort of demonstration which is harassment of individuals and of health service providers. If the police do not act, perhaps the matter should go to the courts and an injunction be sought banning demonstrations of this sort within a half mile radius of a service?