UK police continue to harass pro-life advocates praying near abortion clinics

Originally published in The Christian Post

Police in Birmingham, England, reprimanded a pro-life advocate for praying silently near an abortion clinic, just months after a judge ruled police must pay her compensation for wrongly arresting her twice for the same activity.

Video footage shows a police officer reprimanding Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of pro-life organisation, UK March for Life, as the officer “politely” asks her to leave the area, according to legal rights group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. Vaughan-Spruce was within a 150m “buffer zone” around the clinic where “intimidation,” “harassment” or “influencing a person’s decision to access” an abortion facility is prohibited.

She had been praying silently, but her mere presence could have been construed as causing “harassment, alarm and distress” since she was known to represent a pro-life organisation, according to the officer.

Crown Prosecution Service guidance dated October 2024 states that silent prayer is “not necessarily” a crime in an abortion buffer zone, according to an ADF International press statement, adding that actions must be “overt” to meet the threshold of criminality.

“It has been made clear time and time again,” Vaughan-Spruce said in a statement after the incident, “through the verdict of Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, through the concession and payout from the police, through the words of the former Home Secretary and through CPS Guidance — you cannot break the law by simply existing in a buffer zone, holding thoughts and beliefs in your mind.”

Every person has a right to stand in a public space and think what they want, she said.

“The police officer told me that my “mere presence” was offensive — that’s nothing short of viewpoint discrimination,” Vaughan-Spruce said. “He believes that just because I hold pro-life beliefs, I am automatically a criminal in certain public areas. This isn’t right.”

Three police officers arrested Vaughan-Spruce in November 2022 after she prayed silently while standing near British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Robert Clinic in Kings Norton. A YouTube video of the incident shows a police officer questioning her. 

Police subsequently gave her compensation of £13 000 (R299 000) for her “unjust treatment and the breach of her human rights” by officers, according to ADF International. 

Vaughan-Spruce filed the claim against West Midlands Police for “two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments; assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person; and for a breach of her human rights both in respect to the arrests, and to the onerous bail conditions imposed on her,” according to ADF International, which supported her in the case. 

ADF International has written to police about the latest incident to ask for clarification that a person’s mere presence does not amount to a criminal offense.

“Nobody should be criminalised for publicly holding lawful views or associating with any lawful cause,” said ADF UK legal counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole. “The idea that the state can interrogate citizens and instruct them to leave certain public areas based on their pro-life beliefs and associations is profoundly chilling and concrete evidence, if ever we needed more, of viewpoint-based, two-tier policing.” 

He questioned whether such treatment might wrongly be applied to all Christians holding to biblical beliefs.

“This isn’t 1984; it’s 2025,” Igunnobole said. “Police must respect the fundamental rights of freedom of speech, thought and association.”

In another case echoing similar issues, a retired medical scientist in England faces a court trial after she offered to talk with women entering an abortion clinic, thereby allegedly breaching a local authority buffer zone. 

Livia Tossici-Bolt, 63, held a sign daubed with the invitation, “Here to talk, if you want to,” near the abortion facility, according to ADF International.  

The Daily Mail reported the incident happened in June 2023 when a local authority, the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, subsequently levied a Fixed Penalty Notice against Tossici-Bolt. The council alleged that she breached a local abortion buffer zone, the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) banning any “expression of approval or disapproval of abortion.” 

“There’s nothing wrong with offering help,” Tossici-Bolt said in an ADF International press statement. “There’s nothing wrong with two adults engaging in a consensual conversation on the street. I shouldn’t be treated like a criminal just for this. For several years now, I have been offering a helping hand to women who would like to consider other options to abortion, and pointing them to options where they can receive financial and practical support, if that’s what they would like.”  

Tossici-Bolt refuses to pay the fine, arguing that she did not breach the zone and had a legal right to offer consensual conversations under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act. 

Several people showed a willingness to engage with Tossici-Bolt in conversation, according to ADF International. She is scheduled for trial at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court in Bournemouth, southern England, on March 6. 

Igunnubole said there was unclear legal guidance about abortion clinic buffer zones in the U.K. 

“Under far-reaching and vaguely-written rules, we have seen volunteers like Livia criminalised simply for offering conversations to those in need; and others dragged through courts for praying, even silently, in their minds,” Igunnubole said. “The principle of freedom of thought and speech must be defended both within and outside ‘buffer zones.’ It’s unthinkable that as real crime is mounting, policing time and resources are being expended on peaceful individuals like Livia who simply and peacefully offered conversations.”

Igunnubole said penalising such actions endangers what are supposed to be democratic societies.

“No genuinely free and democratic society criminalises its citizens for exercising their right to freedom of speech, especially when such speech is nothing more than a harmless and consensual conversation,” he said.

A 2023 UK law, the Public Order Act 2023, allows local authorities to install censorial buffer zones outside abortion clinics. The legislation banned any influencing of “a person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services.” 

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