Anti-abortion protesters are harassing vulnerable women at UK clinics as they ramp up demonstrations for Lent and are giving out leaflets suggesting that having a termination is harder to deal with than being raped, it has been claimed.

Hardline religious activists, some of whom are part of a so-called “40 Days for Life” campaign, have been targeting women in increasing numbers at 10 clinics across the country in the run-up to Easter, the Guardian has been told.

They have been brandishing models of foetuses, condemning women as “murderers” and giving out literature falsely stating that having an abortion can increase the risk of breast cancer, it is claimed.

Clinic staff and experts have said:

Activists in Birmingham and Leicester are handing out leaflets with graphic images of foetuses and which suggest that having a termination is harder to overcome than rape and that women who have abortions are more likely to kill themselves.

Women in Cardiff have been delaying abortion appointments because they do not want to face the protesters, who have been accused of intimidating women by carrying cameras.

A protester in Manchester has been trying to show women models of foetuses in an attempt to prevent them from having abortions, and demonstrators in Leicester constructed a display of foetus dolls portraying different stages of development.

Demonstrators have called women visiting a clinic in Manchester “murderers”, and one protester became “verbally aggressive” when told by police not to approach people.

The Labour MP Jess Phillips, who has spoken about her own experience having an abortion, said: “For most women, myself included, abortion is not a traumatic incident and to suggest it is harder than being raped suggests that these groups know as much about victims of sexual violence as they know about abortion: nothing.

“This is not freedom of speech, it is harassment, and the government must legislate urgently to create buffer zones around these clinics which allow women to make their healthcare choices free from intimidation.”

Last month a council voted to introduce a buffer zone outside a clinic in Richmond, south-west London. Last year another buffer zone was voted through in Ealing, west London, to stop protesters coming within 100 metres of a clinic. But in September after a review, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, ruled out introducing exclusion zones around all abortion centres.

In recent weeks anti-abortion activists have stepped up efforts as part of the US-founded 40 Days for Life campaign. One leaflet distributed by protesters at clinics in Leicester and Birmingham purports to quote women who have had abortions, with one saying: “For me, the abortion was harder to get over than the rape.” Another says: “No one ever told me I would live with this decision for the rest of my life. It’s been several years but my grief continues.”

The quotes appear alongside a picture of a 10-week-old foetus. The contact details on the leaflet match those of an organiser listed on 40 Days for Life’s Birmingham campaign website. The leaflet also provides a contact number for the Good Counsel Network, a Catholic group that organises protests outside abortion clinics. The Leicester protest is understood not to be officially affiliated to the 40 Days for Life campaign.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The leaflet claims pregnancy is ‘a protective factor against suicide’. Photograph: Simon Murphy

The pamphlet also suggests women who have abortions are more likely to kill themselves. It states: “Pregnancy is a protective factor against suicide. One study found that women who had abortions have six times higher rates of suicide than women who continue their pregnancies.”

The group uses a 28-year-old entry in the British Medical Journal and a 14-year-old Finnish study to support its claims. However, a report by the Commons science and technology committee in 2007 criticised the Finnish study, stating: “The comparison groups are inappropriate for answering a question about the causal link between abortion and all-cause morbidity.”

Another leaflet, handed out in Manchester and produced by 40 Days for Life, carries an image of a foetus and graphic descriptions of methods of abortion. Without providing a reference, it states: “Research has linked abortion to increased risk of future miscarriage and breast cancer.”

The 2007 parliamentary report endorsed guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists which stated: “Induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.”

Jessica Jones, a nurse at a Marie Stopes clinic in Fallowfield, Manchester, said there had been up to 10 protesters outside each day during Lent wielding banners emblazoned with foetuses. “It’s harassment is what it is,” she said. “They call people murderers.”

She added: “There’s one woman who brings little models of a foetus developing. She’ll get them out and try and show people the models. It’s to show: ‘This how far along your child is now.’ It’s massively traumatic for people coming to the clinic. It’s intimidating.”

Viv Rose, who manages the British Pregnancy Advisory Service’s Cardiff clinic, said there had been up to 10 protesters outside each day during Lent. She said: “Some people actually ring us and say: ‘I’m not coming in because I’ve seen all the demonstrators outside. When do they go?’

“And they rebook their abortion. That, to me, is dreadful because they’re not stopping people having abortions, they’re putting it off for the 40 days. So they’re actually making the women have abortions at later term than they normally would.”

Some protesters carried cameras, meaning “women are scared they’re taking their picture going in the building”, Rose said.

Robert Colquhoun, 40 Days for Life’s director of international campaigns, said: “40 Days for Life organise peaceful, prayerful and legal vigils outside of abortion centres in the United Kingdom. In nine years of ministry we have not seen a single substantiated case of harassment or intimidation by any of our volunteers in that time.

“It has been estimated in the last five years that thanks to all groups that organise prayer vigils in the UK outside abortion centres there are over 1,000 babies who were scheduled for an abortion but are alive today thanks to volunteers who witness for life in a peaceful, loving and compassionate manner.”