The latest worldwide ’40 Days for Life’ campaign will run from 25th September to 3rd November 2013. The campaign asks volunteers to ‘pray to end abortion’ outside clinics which provide abortions. This time round, these picketers will be hitting the pavements in Birmingham, Leamington, Leeds, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Twickenham and Stratford.

 

As a peaceful, positive response to 40 Days for Life in the UK we have decided to launch the ‘piss off a picket’ campaign. We’re asking people to make a small donation, per day or per picketer, to Education For Choice.

 

You can give a certain amount for each day the picket goes on (for example, £1 a day = £40) or really ‘piss-off a picket’ by donating a chosen amount for each protestor. We’ll do our best to keep you updated on the numbers via our Tumblr.

 

Clinic 'vigils'

 

As well as praying, picketers have been accused of intimidating those entering the clinics. They hand out inaccurate information on abortion and send pregnant women to ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ which give further false, biased information. In London, picketers were handing out details of a pregnancy counselling centre which has been shown to lie about abortion, saying that there is a 100% chance it will lead to cancer, and that abortion ‘comes from the powers of darkness’.

BPAS patients have themselves reported feeling distressed by 40 Days for Life’s presence:
 

“I was harassed and intimidated. I was told to read the leaflets they were trying to give out. Then they went up to my daughter and tried giving her the leaflets.”
 

We think people deserve to make decisions about their reproductive health free from harassment and intimidation. Free from misinformation, judgement and lies.

How to support the campaign

Please help us by promoting the campaign in the following ways: 

• Make a donation! For more information on Education For Choice, and the work that they do visit www.efc.org.uk

• Promote the ‘piss-off a picket’ campaign by word of mouth and by sharing on social media. Use the hashtag #PissOffAPicket to get us trending on Twitter!

• Email us 40daysofchoice@gmail.com or tweet us @40DaysofChoice to keep us informed of what’s going on in your local area – help us count the picketers!

• Contact local press in your area to let them know about the campaign and how people can peacefully respond to anti-choice pickets near them.