Is This The Way To Stop Women Being Abused Outside Abortion Clinics?

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says women need to be protected from harassment and abuse when they attend abortion clinics.

Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary, has called for buffer zones to be put in place near abortion clinics to prevent women being harassed and abused as they go in and out of the building.

Cooper said that counselling organisations such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service had experienced an increase in the number of protests outside abortion clinics, with some activists positioning themselves directly outside and blocking entrances. Some patients have even been forced to walk past distressing images of late term abortions and have been filmed as they enter and leave.

'Women need to be able to attend sensitive health care appointments – including abortion services – without facing intimidation and harassment. And health care workers need to be able to do their jobs without intimidation too,' said Cooper. 'We don't want the kind of harassment and abuse that we've seen in the US imported into Britain.'

Any new measures would ban protestors from getting within a certain distance or harassing women.

Last week, footage of a woman giving anti-abortion protestors

What do you think? Should there be buffers outside abortion clinics? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below, or head to our @marieclaireuk Twitter page to let us know.