Open Democracy erases women from a discussion of abortion rights. Much democracy, very open.

“Mum!” “Murderer!” “Give your baby a present – a birthday!” For close to 25 years, pregnant people were harassed by anti-choice protesters as they made their way into the MSI Reproductive Choices clinic in Ealing, west London.

No, not pregnant people, pregnant women. However butch any of them may have been, they were still women. If you can’t say the word “women” you can’t defend women’s rights.

Thanks to successful campaigning by Sister Supporter – a group of grassroots activists that I am part of – this is no longer the case. Our activism has also spread nationally, protecting women from anti-choice harassment outside clinics that provide safe abortion care in Richmond upon Thames and Manchester.

There you go! That’s the word. Use it passim please, not as an afterthought.

Our work continues. According to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), since 2018 there’s been an anti-abortion presence at 42 clinics across England and Wales. More than 100,000 women and pregnant people, according to BPAS research, were subjected to anti-choice harassment while attending an appointment in 2019.

Just women. Men don’t need abortion rights.

The group did good work. It shouldn’t be obscured by this fad for erasing women.

Sister Supporter is a pro-choice, anti-harassment grassroots organisation that was founded in November 2015 after an Ealing resident, Anna Veglio-White, returned home from university and was shocked that the anti-abortion groups she remembered seeing as a child were still standing outside the clinic, many years later.

That same week, she placed an advert in the local paper with a call to action: come to a pro-choice counter-demo at the weekend. More than 20 local residents turned up with home-made placards, and Sister Supporter was born.

(Sisters are women.)

Over the years, we had holy water thrown on us, were called ‘murderers’ and were told repeatedly that we were going to hell. Our policy in response has been to ‘not engage’. While we managed to block clinic users’ view of the protestors, and vice versa, we couldn’t drown out the sound of their anti-choice chants, prayers and songs.

We also collected evidence to build local support for our campaign and look for solutions. This formed the basis of our petition to Ealing Council, which received 3,593 signatures (more than any previous petition by local residents).

In April 2018, a public spaces protection order (PSPO) – a tool defined in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 – came into force, meaning that protesters could no longer go within 100 metres of the MSI clinic.

Well done.