A woman who almost aborted her unborn baby decided not to go through with the abortion after pro-lifers approached her outside of a west London clinic, and now she’s seeking to overturn a zoning law barring pro-lifers from speaking to women as they enter the clinic.
Londoner Alina Dulgheriu went to the Ealing, west London Marie Stopes clinic in 2011 to get an abortion, and after speaking with the pro-lifers outside the clinic, she decided to keep the child instead. “Before I was approached outside of the clinic, I felt as though I had no choice but to have an abortion,” Dulgheriu told the Catholic News Agency. Her daughter is now seven years old.
“The support that I was offered — both financial and practical — provided me with another option that I didn’t even realize existed,” Dulgheriu said. “Without it, my beautiful daughter wouldn’t be here today.”
The clinic offers surgical abortions up to 23 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy, according to its website. For women less than 12 weeks pregnant, “a gentle suction method will be used to remove the pregnancy from the womb through the vagina,” its website reads, adding that light refreshments will be given to the women after their abortions.
Her remarks come after England’s High Court ruled to uphold a “buffer zone” law around the Marie Stopes abortion clinic. The zone does not allow pro-lifers within 100 meters of the clinic, mandating that they cannot pray or attempt to speak to the women coming to abort within that 100 meter zone. (RELATED: London Wants A Buffer Zone For Abortion Clinic, But Pro-Life Activists Say It Will ‘Criminalize Prayer’)
She and another local woman have appealed the court’s decision and stated that they will take the case all the way to the U.K.’s Supreme Court if necessary.
“I cannot believe that the Council has taken away a choice from women that has the potential to change their lives for the better,” Dulgheriu told CNA. “I hope that I will be in a position to appeal the decision because I cannot imagine a society where offering to help a women is seen as a criminal offense.”
Alliance Defending Freedom International senior policy officer Ryan Day also called the court’s decision a “travesty” and “astonishing,” CNA reported. “The court has upheld the criminalization of prayer and free discourse on UK streets, probably for the first time since the Reformation era,” Day said.
“These are peaceful people exercising what are, or should be, bedrock civil liberties in the hope of saving lives,” he added.
The appeal to remove the buffer zone will be heard in the fall.
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