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Anti-abortion campaigners picket Marie Stopes

The 'Stop the Marie Stopes' campaign protest yesterday in Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell
The 'Stop the Marie Stopes' campaign protest yesterday in Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell The 'Stop the Marie Stopes' campaign protest yesterday in Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell

MORE than 100 members of an anti-abortion group staged a demonstration outside the Marie Stopes clinic yesterday as part of an international pro-life campaign.

The protest by Precious Life comes two months after its director Bernadette Smyth was cleared of harassing the Belfast centre’s former director, Dawn Purvis.

Ms Smyth was absent from yesterday's 'Stop Marie Stopes' protest but issued a statement in which she said pro-life activists "throughout the world" will this week picket local abortion referral centres and clinics to protest.

The Belfast city centre clinic offers sexual and reproductive healthcare and early medical abortions within Northern Ireland’s laws since it opened on Great Victoria Street in October 2012.

Precious Life stages protests on a weekly basis and has been criticised by pro-choice groups for its stance toward some women seeking services.

Abortions can only be carried in Northern Ireland in which a woman's life is threatened, or her long-term physical and mental health are at risk

Following Ms Smyth's successful appeal of her harassment conviction, Marie Stopes’ London office described the decision as a a "shocking failure of the system to protect women".

A judge ruled there was no basis for imposing the condition.