Abortion clinic prepares for protests

MARIE STOPES CENTRE:THE MARIE Stopes organisation said yesterday that it had been in close contact with the PSNI to try to ensure that its new Belfast clinic, which is due to open next Thursday, can operate securely.

The clinic on Great Victoria Street in the centre of Belfast is to offer abortion up to nine weeks’ gestation as well as a wide range of sexual and reproductive services. It will be the first private clinic to offer abortion in Ireland.

A Marie Stopes spokeswoman said that the clinic would operate within the law in Northern Ireland where abortion is only permitted if the woman’s life is in danger or where there are serious physical and mental health risks to the woman.

She indicated that the clinic was prepared for protests from next Thursday. “We run a lot of centres in the UK and we have protesters outside of them, often on most days,” she said. Marie Stopes recognised the right to protest peacefully as long as such action “does not encroach on women actually getting into the clinic, or so that they don’t feel that they are being harassed”.

“We have been working closely with the police in Northern Ireland,” the spokeswoman added. “They have been very supportive and I know that they are just as concerned as we are.” Marie Stopes does not have a figure on how many abortions it might conduct each year in Belfast.

The 1967 British Abortion Act does not apply in Northern Ireland but under the criteria set by the North’s Department of Health a number of legal abortions are conducted each year in the North.There were 44 legal terminations in Northern Ireland in 2008-09, 36 in 2009-10 and 43 in 2010-11, according to figures from the department.

The Marie Stopes spokeswoman said it had received no requests for abortions at its Belfast centre so far but that the organisation had received a lot of inquiries about the Belfast clinic, including some from the Republic.

She said the ability for people from the Republic to travel North to have abortions within the set criteria rather than have to travel to England would make “life a bit easier for them”.

The clinic will be managed by former Progressive Unionist Party leader Dawn Purvis and will have five other staff members: two doctors, a psychiatrist, a nurse and a receptionist. It will open two days a week, from lunchtime to 10pm on Thursdays and 8am-6pm on Saturdays.

The Marie Stopes organisation plans to start operations quietly without any official opening or “ribbon-cutting”, said the spokeswoman.

In a statement last night the Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor Dr Noel Treanor said the clinic “further undermines the sanctity and dignity of human life in our society where the most vulnerable and defenceless human beings are already under threat”.

“It is with great concern and dismay that I, like many fellow citizens who value and seek to protect human life, received news of the decision to open a Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast where medical abortion will be offered,” he said.

“As a Christian community and as citizens, not only must we show compassion for women who find themselves facing an unwanted pregnancy, but we should support them to explore avenues which provide care while respecting the life of their child in the womb. We should enable them to respond to such situations in a life-affirming and positive way,” he added.

The Presbyterian Church noted that Marie Stopes said it would operate within the law. It added that it “would strongly oppose any attempt to undermine or liberalise the abortion legislation as it currently stands in Northern Ireland that termination of human life at any stage within the womb should not be considered except under the most extreme circumstances”.