The BBC's Karen Allen: "Security is being reviewed"

The homes of staff from the Ulster Pregnancy Advisory Association had earlier been the focus of protests from anti-abortion campaigners. Now the service has decided to close.

And there are concerns that the tension will increase next month with the arrival of prominent anti-abortion activists from the USA.

But pro-choice experts say the protests are having little effect on the numbers of women seeking advice over the termination of their pregnancies.

Seeking assistance

About 90 abortions are carried out in Northern Ireland each year.

The province comes under different legislation from the rest of the UK.

Doctors whose consent is needed are deeply divided over the issue and so up to 2,000 a year travel elsewhere in the UK for help.

Audrey Simpson: "Doing nothing wrong"

The Ulster Pregnancy Advisory Association was one of two agencies in the province able to refer them for treatment, but it has now been forced to close after vandalism and allegations of intimidation.

The association is so alarmed by the recent attack that Audrey Simpson, of the Family Planning Association, has had to speak on its behalf.

"I think they're devastated that this is happening," she said.

"They feel that all they were trying to do was give women information they weren't doing anything anything illegal, they weren't doing anything wrong but some people tried to make that impossible for them, to continue doing that."

Anti-abortion activists in Belfast - who operate under the name Precious Life - categorically deny any involvement in violence, but admit they have protested outside the homes of staff.

Bernadette Smythe: "We are opposed to violence"

Bernadette Smythe, a spokeswoman for the group, said: "There's been no proof connecting that with Precious Life there will never be any proof connecting Precious Life with any types of violence because we oppose violence in the womb and violence outside the womb."

This same group has now invited prominent anti-abortionists from the US to come to Belfast next month prompting fears among the remaining counselling services that tensions could increase.

Extremist elements of the US anti-abortion lobby have been behind a number of killings of abortion doctors and, although Precious Life says its guests have not been linked to any violence, it says it will seek "inspiration" from them.

Dr Caroline Hunter: "Keep issues clear"

Dr Caroline Hunter, who offers family planning advice in Northern Ireland, said condemnation of those who picketed clinics should be mistaken for implicit support of abortion.

"The whole issue of the pickets is mixed up with the issue of termination of pregnancy and to denounce the pickets may look like they're taking a stance on termination, which is not necessarily the case," she said.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) says the number of Irish and Northern Irish women seeking abortions in Britain rose in 1998, despite the fact that protests have been increasing over the past two years.

Fundamentalism

BPAS spokeswoman Ann Furedi said: "What these groups fail to appreciate is that there is a clear and growing expectation that women in the north and south of Ireland should have the same ability to plan their families as women elsewhere in the UK and Europe.

"These groups make it more difficult and more gruelling for them to get advice in their own country, but their action also reinforces both their and abortion workers' determination."

She thinks the growing militancy of anti-abortion groups is caused by fears that abortion legislation will be liberalised.

However, she did not think the protesters would become as violent as their US counterparts.