LEAVE OUR PATIENTS ALONE YOU BULLIES.. THIS IS NOT CHRISTIAN

Furious medic accuses group of harassing women and demands clinic buffer zones

- RUTH SUTER

A FURIOUS NHS doctor clashed with anti-abortion protesters outside his hospital yesterday, branding them "bullies".

Dr Greg Irwin confronted the US-inspired group 40 Days for Life as they began a 40-day demonstration outside the abortion clinic at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Dr Irwin, who works in the children's unit at the site, came out of the hospital yesterday morning to beg the protesters to stop targeting female patients.

He condemned their "disgraceful" and "utterly unacceptable" harassment of women attending the clinic for terminations.

He told them: "You are upsetting my patients and you are upsetting my staff.

"You say you are acting in the Christian faith, which says we should love one another.

"But what you are doing is very unkind and I would like you to stop.

"You need to stop coming to my hospital, this is not fair. I want you to leave."

Dr Irwin went on to slam the group as "bullies' as they brandished banners reading: "Don't be coerced into abortion."

He told the Record: "These people are bullying our patients. Abortion is legal in our country and these women are doing nothing wrong.

"Women who may be experiencing the very worst day of their lives are having to deal with these people.

"Their protest is aimed directly at women and is the very definition of misogyny. It is spiteful, there is no other word for it.

"I can't see any way in which it can be described as a Christian act."