Is protesting outside of an abortion clinic harassment/pressuring?

Here is another exchange that I had on the Telegraph forum regarding the claim that we shouldn't be allowed to protest and pray outside of abortion clinics.

Initial poster:
Harassment and humiliation of vulnerable young women at a particularly stressful time of their lives is perfectly legal in the UK, and these protesters get their kicks from it.

My reply:
I'm sorry but we don't "get our kicks from it". We want to help the women who go in, who from my experience feel pressured to have an abortion because they don't see another way forward.

2nd Poster:

You want to help people who you think have been pressured to go in?

And you want to help them... by putting more pressure on them? Judging them as going to hell?

Just leave them alone.

My reply:

The group that I belong to certainly doesn't "put pressure" on them and we certainly don't judge and say they are going to hell.

I have never stopped or impeded anyone from going in. We pray, and hand out leaflets to those who wish to take them which informs about fetal development (a simple timeline) as well as showing them that there are other options available including financial and emotional support which includes post-abortion support should they go through with it. Often, the women are very poorly informed about these topics.

2nd Poster:

Listen I don't want to make an enemy of you and I'm sure your intentions are good. But you are putting pressure on these people by your simple presence and by implying that you know what's morally right and these people don't.

Please- I don't share your religious views. Some of these young women might and some of them don't. If they want religious advice we have enough churches, mosques and synagogues they can go to.

My reply:

I'm not sure why you think giving me your opinion would make an enemy out of me.

I agree that any women going in to an abortion clinic will feel a lot of pressure, some of which will be caused by the unnaturalness of what they are doing, something which goes against their motherly instinct and then also from their own personal situations which vary greatly from feeling that they don't have the resources to bring up a child, to feeling they can't cope alone and even to being pressured by their social worker to have the abortion.

The care of the woman (and her child) is fundamental to the work we do which is why, at least in my experience, the protests are discreet and we never force ourselves on the women but simply hand out leaflets and ask if they wish to speak - if they don't then they are never impeded to go inside. We know women feel great pressure which is why when we speak to them we try and find out their circumstances and offer alternative solutions if they want them which as stated before includes financial and emotional support which often is what these women need most.

Of course, we don't think that abortion is a good thing and I hope and pray that one day we will be an abortion free country. But you are right that care for women is fundamental to that and it is in fact at the heart of the pro-life movement.

Final comments

As you can read, there are two battles that we face in arguing for the pro-life cause. The first is the argument to the emotional. The second is that we are somehow anti-woman. Both of these are of course not false arguments. Abortion is wrong because it involved the killing of a human being and we should proclaim this (with respect of course) no matter how we make others feel. The second point is also completely false and is normally used to shut-down any rational debate.