It's time for anti-abortion protesters to back off It is hard to find a word to encapsulate what is going on outside some pregnancy advice and abortion centres in the UK, in some places on a daily basis. It's usually called "protest," and yes - with their graphic banners and plastic foetuses strewn on the floor - these people are clearly there to demonstrate their avowed opposition to abortion. But they have also come to target the pregnant women arriving at these centres for advice and treatment. These women are not coming for a debate about abortion with those who think it is wrong, or making a political statement about their position on abortion. They are coming to access a confidential and lawful medical service, and impartial advice about their options. Our contention is this: there are plenty of places to protest against abortion, and for the small number of people who wish to do so, plenty of channels to campaign to restrict women's reproductive choices. But pregnant women should be left alone. Last week, the judge in a successful harassment case that was brought against a protester outside the Marie Stopes centre in Belfast hit the nail on the head in his closing remarks. It was entirely inappropriate, he said, "for anyone to be stopped outside this clinic in any form, shape or fashion and questioned either to their identity, why they are going in there and being forced to involve themselves in conversation at times when they are almost certainly going to be stressed and very possibly distressed." But this is exactly what is happening across the UK on a regular basis. We know how it makes women feel to have to walk past these people - some of whom wear cameras strapped to their chest - because they write it down: "I felt intimidated and scared to go into the clinic. I felt judged and uncomfortable. Not a nice feeling at all. And it makes some women quite furious. "Having leaflets shoved in my face disregarding a much-thought about decision and being told I'd be "prayed for" is an invasion of privacy and in my view tantamount to harassment." At the British Pregnancy Advisory Service we have held back for some time from making a formal call to establish "buffer zones" or "safe havens" around clinics, but that's what we are doing today with our Back Off campaign. We have previously contacted the churches who support the people who gather outside clinics and asked them to reconsider their stance - but to no avail; in repeated meetings with police around the country officers have told us they do not have the powers to tackle the problems these people cause; and attempts to use public order legislation have failed. Women, understandably, do not want to complain to the police because they don't want anyone to know they are there. We have asked the Home Office for a meeting to discuss our concerns, but have yet to receive a reply. A statement they issued to the media yesterday suggested they had little interest in the matter or in engaging with the specific challenges and competing rights it raises. It may be that politicians want to steer clear of abortion in the mistaken belief it is just "too controversial." Actually, abortion is far less controversial than politicians think, with the vast majority of us supporting a woman's right to choose (in fact, public opinion on abortion is more liberal than the law). People support the right to protest and freedom of speech, but we also accept that freedom does not mean the right to speak on any occasion, or in any situation. To deny a woman entering a clinic her chance to state her views with the aim of persuading her to reconsider her abortion choice is no more a denial of freedom of speech than hecklers are denied the right to freedom of speech when they are ejected from a public meeting. Legislation that would curtail this sort of behaviour outside registered pregnancy advisory bureaux and abortion clinics, which would push these people back and prevent the filming and other activities that we know cause women distress, is no assault on the right to protest. But it would be a formal recognition that as a society we believe a pregnant woman accessing a medical service has the right to do so without having to confront a gaggle of people bent on deterring her from making the choice that is right for her.