Rather nasty turn of events - from this morning's Times
Jim Carroll

ANTI-ABORTION GROUPS TO TARGET WOMEN AT GPS
Calls to ban harassment as activists take tactics from American allies
Ellen Coyne Senior Ireland Reporter
Anti-abortion activists are rushing to create “crisis pregnancy centres” that will target women seeking termina¬tions in the Republic next year.
The revelation that activists have already started fundraising for such agencies, which will adopt tactics used by US anti-abortion groups, has led to cross-party calls for a ban on the har¬assment of women seeking abortions and medical staff performing them.
Up to 20 Irish anti-abortion activists will be flown to the US this summer to be trained in tactics including “pave¬ment counselling”, which can involve harassing women trying to access abor¬tions outside hospitals or clinics.
Activists have also started appealing for funds to set up crisis pregnancy clin¬ics as near as possible to premises that will offer terminations in Ireland after the law is changed. The same tactic is used by anti-abortionists in the US.
Several anti-abortion groups in Ire¬land already run agencies that have been exposed lying to women, includ¬ing claiming that abortion will cause breast cancer, make them suicidal and turn them into child abusers.
Donegal Together for Yes said it was concerned that women would be tricked into believing that such organi¬sations, if set up, would have women’s best interests at heart. It said it knew of attempts to set up agencies in Donegal, the only county that voted “no” to re¬pealing the Eighth Amendment.
“We believe the government should be coming down hard and strongly on any illegal counselling which is offered outside of registered HSE agencies,” Sinéad Stewart, a spokeswoman for Donegal Together for Yes, said.
Expectant Mother Care, a US anti- abortion group, which has been caught making misleading claims to women, has offered to fly 20 Irish activists to New York this summer to train them to run similar agencies in Ireland. The group has set up offices directly beside US abortion clinics in an attempt to in¬tercept women seeking terminations.
Chris Slattery, a US activist who works for the group, said: “I quickly bounced back [from the referendum re¬sult] and realised God is sending us a message that we need to focus on indi¬vidual conversion of hearts and souls,” Mr Slattery told Currents News, a Catholic cable TV station. He said that the nine women a day who travelled to the UK for legal abortions were not being reached by activists such as him and greater efforts should be made.
Simon Harris, the health minister, signed regulations last week to regulate crisis pregnancy agencies for the first time. It followed investigations by The Times that exposed Ask Majella, the Women’s Centre on Berkeley Street in Dublin and Gianna Care for posing as objective sources of information but giving women misleading advice.
Louise O’Reilly, the Sinn Féin
spokeswoman on health, said that the government had to take steps to proact¬ively ban any anti-abortion groups that sought to harass women with vigils or “counselling” outside GP clinics or hos¬pitals. “We cannot be complacent. We have seen from some elements of the referendum campaign that these people can and will take an aggressive stance,” she said.
Brendan Howlin, the Labour leader, said that the government should legis¬late to protect the areas around hospi¬tals and clinics from protests.
“It is essential that any premises of¬fering terminations, as voted for by the Irish people, be protected in the law with exclusion zones to protect against protestors but also protection in the planning regulations so that false flag operations can’t just open beside them,” Mr Howlin said.