That was my favourite placard slogan from Friday evening’s protest in Bedford Square against the bigots and harassers of 40 Days for Life.
Here are some pictures I took to mark the occasion. See if you can spot the glaring difference between them and us.
Praying at the shrine of the box of plastic foetuses
Put all the women at the front so it looks like there’s more of them…
Men who will never have to face the prospect of an unwanted pregnancy
More men who will never get pregnant.
“Woman not a womb”
“Women’s bodies women’s lives”
“Our bodies our lives our right to decide”
“Protect women’s right to choose”
Women standing up for women.
Men praying to their male gods
Click those beads all you like, we’re still going to win this one.
For more pictures and some ace videos of the protest go to
HarpyMarx – A woman’s right to choose….
Kate Belgrave – Pro choice demonstration, central London March 30
Too Much To Say For Myself 
I was there (on the pro-choice, FUN side, obviously!) and it was a great atmosphere and experience.
The only thing I worry about is whether our counter-protesting will increase the numbers of anti-choicers outside the clinic during its operating hours. I know they’re already there, and if anyone is ‘escalating’ the situation it’s the religious bigots who’ve turned up at a health centre to harass patients, but there were more of them on Friday night because they heard we were planning a counter-protest.
Hi Emily. I agree, it’s a difficult one isn’t it. The problem is though that if we stay away and simply ignore them we risk giving the impression that there is no opposition to what they’re doing. Also, I do think we need to send the message, as we did on Friday evening, that the harassment of women seeking abortions will not be tolerated.
What’s happening in the US is really worrying, and in my view we have got to take a stand now and do whatever it takes to prevent the same happening here. If that means upping the ante a bit and risking more of the opposition turning up to these things, I think it’s a risk we’re going to have to take.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended this rally. I so wanted to be there. I’ve always said that if there was a god – a truly compassionate god – that he/she would be pro-choice. Who the hell are these men who think they can dictate to women what they can and can’t do with their own bodies.
Great pictures, Cath. I particularly like the last one – he looks very priest-like but, that aside, it appears that he is just so over-whelmed by the thought of women being allowed to make decisions about their own bodies that he’s found himself prostrate over the barrier.
Oh I wouldn’t worry Emily how many middle aged men in bad cardigans and the odd token nun are there out there?
I would add something about the former group’s motivation (because they always seem to be the majority on these pro life protests) but better just stick to criticising their choice of knits I think.
PS: I was discussing (as you do) sex education in schools and the crapness thereof last night and a woman ventured the opinion that although as a christian she was very much pro choice, she would like to see better sex education to reduce the number of abortions because they were obviously bad for you.
Now I don’t deny for a moment that depending on the circumstances of the individual woman, an unwanted pregnancy, and hence the decision to terminate it, can be a stressful experience. And of course any medical procedure carries some risks.
But it does disturb me how much it has become a given – even amongst obviouslly liberal educated types – that abortion is always a distressing experience. And why do the likes of Nadine Dorries who bleat on about the supposed psychological effects of abortion never mention the psychological effects of pregnancy – since even a very much wanted, planned pregnancy can result in serious mental illness in the form of post natal depression.
I totally agree with the sentiment, Polly, and pro-choice advocates HAVE to be prepared to say ‘Abortion is awesome and necessary’, rather than allowing the narrative to be dominated by the sentiment that there’s something shameful about it.
I think Kate Smurthwaite said something like ‘The right number of abortions p/a in the UK is the number of abortions that women need.’ If a woman wants and needs an abortion, the abortion is the Good Thing in that scenario; continuing the unwanted pregnancy is the Bad Thing.
It’s like having your wisdom tooth removed because it’s impacted. In an ideal world you wouldn’t have any minor surgery because you’re body would never do things you don’t want it to do, but if you leave the tooth in, you will end up with a serious infection and have to have more serious surgery. So lamenting all the dental procedures people are having is stupid.
I haven’t had an abortion, but if I needed one I’d have one, and I don’t think it would be traumatising. I think I’d be relieved. If the state forced me to remain pregnant against my will and forced me to give birth, I’d probably go insane. Now that’s psychological torture.
I’m pro-choice, but that’s very much based on a particular set of arguments and a particular understanding of biology. If some people don’t share that understanding, I don’t think it makes them bigoted. I think calling everyone who doesn’t agree with you a bigot puts you more on that side of things. If you think a fetus if a life, feminism has nothing to do with it, it’s murder. I don’t think it’s a life, but that’s the main issue, and if people think a fetus is a life, whilst I think there are still good pro-choice arguments, they’re much more complex and unintuitive than they would need to be for me to be warranted in calling anyone who didn’t buy them a bigot.
I don’t like the use of ‘bigot’ in feminism. I feel like it often gets used in a silencing way.