“We need to show support in some way, but also not directly confront these people, because a lot of the time it’s just completely pointless. Combative is not the way we wanted to go about this. We thought this was a good-will campaign that everyone could get involved with.”
In response to the anti-abortion “40 Days for Life” campaign, which organises protests outside abortion clinics, Carmen D’Cruz and Liz Lutgendorff started a counter-campaign called 40 Days of Treats.
The idea behind 40 Days of Treats is to show support for the staff of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), whose offices are currently being targeted by the 40 Days for Life protesters. As the 40 Days of Treats website explains: “A counter protest for 40 days doesn’t seem right – why draw attention to them? Instead, let’s do something for the people who are probably most affected and could use the boost. Let’s give the nice people at BPAS 40 days of treats.”
For more background on the UK politician Nadine Dorries and her views on abortion, see this link and this link:
[Dorries] bid to outlaw institutions with a “financial interest” in carrying out abortions providing such advice was roundly rejected in a Commons vote after a rowdy debate. Labour dismissed her argument as a “shoddy, ill-conceived attempt to promote non-facts to make a non-case” and some of Ms Dorries’ Conservative colleagues took issue with the evidence she cited.
The Guardian article referenced in the interview is featured here: Cakes and the right to choose by Homa Khaleeli.
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