The Sheffield Solidarity Group put out a call this afternoon to come to the Hallamshire hospital and protect women’s right to abortion in a peaceful protest.
Nicola Towse, Sheffield branch leader of the Women’s Equality Party said: “It’s really nice to see people of all different ages and genders, because a lot of the work often falls on cis women particularly, so it’s great to see a variety of support here today.”
American based ‘pro-life’ group ’40 Days for Life’, who often demonstrate outside the Hallamshire Hospital against abortion healthcare, planned to protest there on international Women’s Day.
’40 Days for Life’ did not turn up, but tens of people in support of women’s right to healthcare did, ready to counter protest the group who are known by the solidarity group to have harassed women entering the hospital for over a year.
Charlotte Mead, another member of the Women’s Equality Party attending the protest, said: “The thing that we have to get away from is thinking that abortion is some sort of separate thing to the rest of healthcare.
“It’s not, abortion is healthcare.”
France have just made abortion a constitutional right, making many of these protesters more hopeful for the UK, as Parliament are set to vote on decriminalising abortion in the coming weeks.
Charlotte said: “One of the easiest things people can do to support the movement is write to your MP that you would like them to vote for the decriminalisation of abortion – they listen to emails and letters and we can really make change here.”
Protester Greg Collier emphasised the importance of it being International Women’s Day and said: “It’s women’s voices that need to be heard, and they are being ignored.
“Trying to take away women’s healthcare is an part of the patriarchal acts of violence we are seeing so much against women and girls and they’re just being accepted but it is absolutely unacceptable.”
Currently, if you don’t get the approval of two doctors and the agreement that having the baby would pose a greater risk to the physical or mental health of the woman than a termination, then an abortion is currently illegal in England.