Women celebrating what they thought was a victory for their right to freedom from harassment and bigotry.
© Sister Support.
Last year, MPs in the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to back an amendment to the Public Order Act which would have established 'safe zones' around clinics offering pregnancy termination services to women who need them.
This would have made it unlawful for anyone to harass or approach women entering the clinics in an attempt to prevent their access or to influence their choice by publicly shaming them.
Those routinely harassing women in this way are invariably Christians using various underhand tactics and disinformation and even threatening to photograph the women and post their picture on the social media. Women are routinely subjected to abuse and shouts of 'murderer' by sanctimonious bigots exercising what they claim is a God-given right to impose their views on others and deny others basic human rights.
The traditional passive-aggressive threat of 'praying' for the women and the foetus was used routinely with ostentations 'silent' prayer, clearly intended to shame and embarrass women. Only a Christian could weaponise 'prayer' while ignoring what Jesus allegedly told them about casting the first stone and not judging others.
MP's believed they were voting to protect women exercising their lawful rights, free from public harassment and abuse, but, after listening to Christians and other groups keen to retain their right to abuse, demonise and threaten those with whom they disagree, the Sunak government has watered down the proposals to create loopholes through which Christians can continue to inflict their bigotry on others.
If accepted, these new proposals would effectively make the proposed amendment to the Public Order Act meaningless and unenforceable, allowing would-be abusers of women to drive a coach and horses through the gaping loopholes.
Their excuse is to cite the ECHR, which is incorporated into English, Scottish and Northern Ireland law with the Human Rights Act - something introduced by the 1997-2001 Labour Government and hated by right-wing Tories. This is the same Act that the Sunak government are hypocritically trying to circumvent in order to harass and bully asylum-seekers. The argument is that stopping the conspicuous displays of passive-aggressive 'prayer' infringes the right to free exercise of religion under the ECHR.
This argument ignores the fact that the European Court of Human Rights, which hears cases brought under the ECHR, has repeatedly ruled that claiming religious entitlement to abuse others and deny them their basic human rights is not an acceptable excuse, so the right to free exercise of religion does not extend to denial of human right to others. The fact that these rights come into conflict at all is a measure of how European civilisation is freeing itself from the shackles of medieval barbarism that Christianity once had it bound up with.
The Sunak government is also arguing that the term 'influence' is not legally defined so should take its ordinary dictionary definition which does not include 'offering advice', 'informing', 'discussing' or handing out leaflets, although how you do that without approaching them is a mystery. So, all a harassing Christian need do is claim to be offering advice, informing or discussing abortions with a woman entering a clinic and they can walk away scott free from the charge of harassment or attempting to influence them. Presumably, screaming 'murderer' in the face of a women would be considered 'informing'.
There is a general election due before next Spring when women will be in a position to show the Sunak government (if he hasn't been dumped by then by a party if flat panic) what they think of them facilitating the abuse of women at an emotionally difficult period of their lives when sanctimonious bigots see them as easy victims on whom to inflict their holier-than-thou piety.
This book explains why faith is a fallacy and serves no useful purpose other than providing an excuse for pretending to know things that are unknown. It also explains how losing faith liberates former sufferers from fear, delusion and the control of others, freeing them to see the world in a different light, to recognise the injustices that religions cause and to accept people for who they are, not which group they happened to be born in. A society based on atheist, Humanist principles would be a less divided, more inclusive, more peaceful society and one more appreciative of the one opportunity that life gives us to enjoy and wonder at the world we live in.
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