A mum-of-two has launched a petition to ban an anti-abortion group campaigning outside a Larbert hospital.

Megan Porter, 27, staged a one-woman protest last year after seeing members of the Christian pro-life group 40 Days For Life protesting at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital during Lent.

She, said: “I was so angry and couldn’t believe nobody else was standing against them so I made a sign and went up myself the next day.”

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At first the group, made up of mostly men, thought Megan was standing in solidarity with them offering for her to stand closer but when they discovered she wasn’t an ally, their attitudes changed.

Megan, mum to Abel, 5, and Freida, 2, who she had in a baby carrier on the day,  said: “They got really patronising and kept asking if Freida was ok.

“They said it was good to see some debate and I told them there was no debate - they were wrong.”

After Megan posted an image of her and Freida with her hand-made banner on social media, she was soon fielding thousands of messages - not all of them supportive.

She said: “I got a lot of abuse and pro-life people sending me pictures of dead babies. It was horrible. I had people accusing me of promoting murder and comparing me to the Nazis.”

After carrying out her solo protest, Megan was joined by up to 50 others who took a stand against the religious group, who according to their website, are staging another protest from March 6 to April 14 this year.

In December Megan launched a petition, which now has more than 1700 signatures, to stop the group from being able to stand outside the hospital, believing them to cause unnecessary suffering to staff and visitors.

She said: “I’ve had staff contact me saying how distressing it is [to be faced with protestors] because there are people who’ve lost babies for other reasons or they’ve had to make that decision [to have an abortion] and they’ve had no other option.

“Abortions are going to happen whether they like it or not but if you ban them then people are going to go back to how it used to be. Don’t they know that there are countries where girls are dying? I cannot get my head around it.”

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Megan, who is a blogger and hand-lettering designer, has always felt strongly about every woman’s right to make their own reproductive health choices.

She said: “I’ve got friends who have been in that situation and I would just hate for them not to have the option - we’re not vessels to carry children.”

As a mother herself, Megan feels strongly about teaching her son and daughter that they must stand up for what they believe in.

She said: “If something’s bothering me, I can’t hold my  tongue. I’ve told them that if something’s annoying them, they need to say something and stick up for what’s right.”

40 Days for life were contacted for comment.