By Bernard Moran

There is a campaign underway to have the Government ban anti-abortion

protesters from standing across the road from the entrances to clinics and

hospitals.

It is being pushed by the Abortion Law Reform Association of NZ (ALRANZ) and

certain MPs in the Green Party. They want “bubble zones” created to stop alleged

“harassment” as has been enacted in Tasmania and Victoria in Australia.

The campaign raises issues of freedom of speech and the right to protest in a public

place, provided the protesters behave themselves.

Terry Bellamak, the president of ALRANZ claims that the protests are ineffective as

women have already made up their minds and are determined to go through with

the abortion.

Well, here is what has been happening in Hastings where a small Voice for Life

group have been quietly protesting on Friday when abortions are carried out. The

leader emailed me this week with an update: “We now know of 29 mothers who

have kept their babies due to the influence of either the signs or the information we

have shared with them when they approached us.”

“The mothers have directly told us, or else their partners or parents.”

Over in Thames, an elderly group of around eight protesters stand outside the

hospital entrance on a Friday morning. They have been there every Friday for five

years and know for certain that two babies (possibly three) have been saved.

One woman approached Alf, who is from Glasgow. Indicating her womb, she said

“I’m going in there to get rid of it.”

He replied: “Ach now love, please don’t hurt your wee bairn.”

She looked at him

intently for a long time and then threw her arms around his neck. “Guess what?”

she smiled, “You’ve just saved my baby.”