The right to public protest and freedom of speech is not only coming under attack in the UK but right across the western world. Those who stand up for traditional values and the rights of the unborn are facing increasing hostility. One only needs to look across the Tasman to Victoria and Tasmania where buffer zones have been legally enacted around abortion mills. Article Reads…
The following article is a re-post from the Irish Life Institute website and is by Lydia Mead on Sunday, November 26, 2017
It’s not exactly news. For many years now, the right to publicly protest has been coming under attack by people who are determined to shut down dissenting voices. You don’t actually need to be protesting to have your voice silenced – these days all you need is your publicly stated opinion that goes against the approved political view. So cake makers are fined in Northern Ireland for refusing to make a celebration cake for a gay wedding, a president a student socity of an Irish university is impeached simply for believing it’s wrong to kill unborn children, university pro-life and christian clubs are shut down simply for being pro-life and christian, a teacher in Cambridge is disciplined by his board and may lose his job for not referring to a transgender girl as a boy, and et cetera. And in another nuance on the possibilities of eroding democracy and shutting down free speech, there is the increasingly intense battle to put an end to peaceful prayer, protest and any presence at all by pro-life people outside abortion businesses.
Recently, in Ealing, London, UK, a group that has met together outside a Marie Stopes business and prayed and offered help and alternatives to women and girls for 22 years has been forced to stop gathering. Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing, has had it in for this particular group for some time.
For many years, the sight of the peaceful group has caused her to “silently seethe with rage” she says in an article for the Guardian. She’s not joking.