Tensions are mounting over anti-abortion protests in Thames, where a second pro-life group has just been granted a permit to protest outside the hospital.
Anti-abortion group Voice for Life has been protesting at a street corner near Thames Hospital in the Coromandel every Friday - the only day of the week that abortion services are offered there - for the past five years.
A few months ago, a group of residents decided they'd had enough and started a pro-choice counter-protest to support women, who they say have been left feeling intimidated and vulnerable.
Thames resident Rachel Harrison said that over the past five years, when she has driven to work on a Friday, she has avoided the corner where pro-life protesters have been gathering.
But this morning, she was one of about a dozen locals taking part in the pro-choice counter-protest, complete with banners and signs.
She said many local women, including some who had gone through terminations, were sick of feeling judged and harassed by Voice for Life.
"I know women who work in town, who have had terminations before, and who every Friday morning get traumatised and reminded and get given a hard time. And it's not okay that women have a hard time because of a choice they've had to make."
Ms Harrison had also spent a number of years working with survivors of sexual violence and she said they were particularly vulnerable.
"Some of them have fallen pregnant because of the abuse, especially from incest, and every Friday morning some of them have said to me that they go past here and they feel judged not just because they had to make the choice to terminate the pregnancy that resulted from the abuse, but they're reminded and triggered back into the abuse again and again," she said.
Scott Summerfield, the organiser of the counter-protest, said he and a number of others decided to take action back in August.
Anti-abortion and pro-choice protests in Thames Photo: RNZ / Sarah Robson
He said they wanted to find a way to show solidarity with women who were going in to the clinic for abortions, as well as other women in town who may have previously had abortions.
At times, things had gotten tense between the two groups of protesters and a complaint has been laid with police about an alleged assault that took place in September.
The police have said there is insufficient evidence to lay charges in that case, but inquiries were continuing.
Mr Summerfield said the government should take action to enforce safe no-protest zones around hospitals.
"This is, I think, the only medical procedure I can imagine that you would have a protest about and it's targeted at the women who are accessing that hospital," he said.
"It's surreal to think that someone might protest about something that I was going to a hospital for - it would never happen. It's just women who are going to the clinic for an abortion."
Another anti-abortion group, Right to Life, was yesterday granted a permit by the council to protest on the opposite side of the street.
One of its Thames members, Diane Keaney, said they were just trying to help women.
"We stand here quietly with our signs and we're more signs done which hopefully reflect our caring attitude towards women - we may have a bit of a shortfall there with our signs - but we really want to address that because we're here to help women as well and offer them solutions and alternatives to abortion."
There have been calls for the Thames-Coromandel District Council to revoke the permits that allow the pro-life groups to protest.
But the council said it would not revoke permits for any of the groups, regardless of whether they were pro-life or pro-choice.
