They're self-righteous, sanctimonious, women-hating dickheads, basically.
Anyway, on the last Saturday of every month, women's rights organisations stage a counter-protest outside the clinic. I attended this morning's.
All we are saying, is give abortion a chance.
It was a reasonably-sized crowd, actually, the numbers bolstered with a fair few prompted by Bron at GrodsCorp.
The organised protesters - the ones with signs* and megaphones - warmed up with a few "not the church, not the state, women must decide our fate" chants (their deviation from the "their fate" in the "chant sheet" temporarily excluding male attendees) and a "women, workers, gays unite, fight back against the right!", just to make sure there weren't any socially-progressive conservatives joining in.
No-one joined in with my catchy "What do we want? Self-righteous sanctimonious god-bothering thugs to stop bullying women at a difficult time in their lives! When do we want it? Continuously throughout the week!" suggestion. I think it might have been because it didn't rhyme.
Eventually, on the other side of the road, the god-botherers appeared. For a minute it looked like they'd scored a major public relations coup, before it was revealed that the figure they held aloft was only a statue of Jesus. (Or, if Keri's right, Mary. FFS, you'd think they could make those two easy to differentiate, wouldn't you?) Although He's undoubtedly fairly heavily-booked, you'd have to say that the Messiah's failure to attend even a single anti-abortion rally seems very mysterious given the importance they're sure He placed on the subject.
During the week we can usually do quite a lot of harm to vulnerable young women with this few people
After a confrontation last month, in which one of the peace-loving chaps opposite brought his cross/pick-axe across the road and swung it at the pro-choice protesters, and the parents who'd brought their children along tipped them out of their prams so they could use them as battering-rams to try to push their way through, the police made a point of keeping the two groups quite separate. They blocked their footpath, and we blocked ours. And pedestrians were forced to wander dangerously along Wellington Parade dodging cars.
Won't anyone think of the pedestrians?
So the two groups glared at each other for a while. Grods commenter "Private" Tom attempted to bridge the philosophical divide by handing me his sign and wandering over the road to offer the other side some of his charity chocolate, on the theory that even a bigot could have a sweet tooth. Sadly, the police turned him back, so we never got to see whether they'd accept lollies from a hell-bound, infant-slaughtering stranger. Meanwhile, the fundamentalists thankfully resisted the temptation to rip their shirts off, and instead restrained themselves to praying angrily to God to smite the filthy baby-murderers. When the Almighty failed to do that, they stalked back off down the street and disappeared.
And I think everyone learned something. We learned that sanctimonious anti-abortion bigots prefer to bully women when they're not surrounded by a large group of supporters. And they learned that sometimes you don't get what you pray for. It was a worthwhile morning for all.
*We didn't even manage to scribble some slogans on a sheet of A4 with an artline, sticky-taped to a ruler. We are, in fact, pissweak.
UPDATE: It only took him most of a week, but GrodsCorp's famously slack Editor has now posted his dramatic film documentary about the event. Prepare to be titillated.
UPDATE #2 (1/6): Helen outlines the importance of letting your local state MP know, this month, that you support a woman's right to choose, before the issue is ultimately put to another vote. The nutbags certainly won't be silent.
