Vigils at abortion facilities

Recent media coverage of the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil in Bedford Square gave the impression that prayer vigils at abortion facilities were a recent development in Britain. 40 Days for Life's vigils have attracted more attention than others, perhaps in part because of the location of one of the facilities involved - central London, in an area with many buildings associated with the University of London.

Such prayer vigils do take place at other facilities around the country. Fr Tim has posted an account of his participation in one such vigil, and it makes for informative reading: Drenched, spat-on and sworn at (American Style?). I am not quite so sensitive to the "surveillance state" as Fr Tim, but did observe driving in to work one morning this week the Constabulary setting up a road block! It was perhaps not un-related to my working in what is an Olympics host borough and to the fact that the road is one of the routes between training venues in the borough and the main Olympic site at Stratford. 

Fr Tim notes something of imprtance towards the end of his post:

I have played up the incidents today because I think that it is important to get the message across that this is a peaceful vigil and the opponents of it are the ones disposed to violence and intimidation. In fact the participants in the vigil are able to focus on their prayers.