Alina Dulgheriu is trying to raise £50,000 to fight a law banning pro-life free speech outside an infamous abortion facility in England.
A mother and a Christian, Dulgheriu has a very personal reason for her fight.
She said her daughter would not be alive today if the buffer zone had been in place seven years ago outside the Marie Stopes in Ealing, west London. At the time, she was considering an abortion, but sidewalk counselors encouraged her and helped her find support for herself and her unborn baby.
Earlier this year, she filed a lawsuit challenging the buffer zone as a free speech violation. However, a High Court upheld the 100-meter buffer zone on July 2.
SPUC reports Mr Justice Turner decided the Ealing Council was “entitled” to conclude it was a “necessary step in a democratic society,” even though the buffer zone interferes with pro-life advocates’ human rights.
Now, Dulgheriu hopes to appeal the ruling.
Premier reports she is trying to raise £50,000 for her appeal. In less than a week, she already has raised more than £14,000, according to her fundraising page.
Here’s more from the report:
“I do not have the financial resources to challenge the PSPO in the Court of Appeal, and without your support, I can’t bring an appeal,” Dulgheriu said.
She added she was offered help and support when entering an abortion centre by a pro-life vigil in 2011.
“I was given another choice which meant that I could have my beautiful daughter,” she said.
“Since then I have regularly attended vigils in London to offer the same help and support to other women in need, as many women who go to an abortion centre do not want an abortion.”
Dulgheriu said pro-life sidewalk counselors pray and offer patients information about life-affirming alternatives to abortion; they do not harass women, as abortion activists allege.
She said she was “saddened and shocked that the Court has upheld a PSPO that prevents good people giving help to mothers who desperately want it. …I am devastated for those women that since the introduction of the Ealing PSPO, have not been able to access the loving help that I did.”
In April, the Ealing Council in west London unanimously approved the 100-meter (328 foot) buffer zone to prohibit pro-life prayer and outreach around a Marie Stopes abortion facility in the city. Those who violate the buffer zone could face fines or jail time.
It is the first of its kind in England, and abortion activists hope to pressure more cities to take similar action.
Marie Stopes has a long record of dangerous health and safety violations, as well as allegations of giving staff incentives to sell abortions.
It has an egregious reputation, having botched nearly 400 abortions in a two-month period in 2017, according to the British Care Quality Commission. In 2016, inspectors found such horrible conditions that the British government temporarily shut down some of the abortion chain’s operations.
The commission found evidence that Marie Stopes also was pressuring women to have abortions by incentivizing staff with bonuses.
Interestingly, an inquest about a woman who died after aborting her unborn baby at the Ealing abortion facility began at the same time as the buffer zone controversy. The inquest heard how the Ealing facility allegedly urged the woman to leave after her late-term abortion even though she was vomiting and swaying when she walked.
The woman, Aisha Chithira, 31, of Ireland, died later that evening of massive internal bleeding, The Evening Echo reports.
