In a move designed to keep pro-life activists from influencing women about having an abortion, Great Britain’s UK Home Office announced it would enforce a ban on “influencing” anyone within 150 meters of an abortion facility.
The Home Office stated on Tuesday that anyone breaking the law would face an unlimited fine. The Home Office stated, “Safe access buffer zones will make it illegal for anyone to do anything that intentionally or recklessly influences someone’s decision to use abortion services, obstructs them, or causes harassment or distress to someone using or working at these premises. The law will apply within a 150 metre radius of the abortion service provider.”
“Good law should be clear, consistent and predictable but the buffer zones legislation set to be enacted is vague and broadly drafted,” Jeremiah Igunnubole, Legal Counsel for ADF UK stated. “By banning ‘influencing’ – a broad and sweeping term – over an area stretching 300m in diameter, the law is wide open to misinterpretation and abuse. In the places where ‘buffer zones’ already exist under local authorities, we have already seen three individuals prosecuted over the past two years, simply for praying silently in the privacy of their own minds.”
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“Engaging in silent prayer, or consensual conversation, are peaceful acts protected by human rights law,” he continued. “And whilst the government has heeded calls to refrain from naming these acts as criminal offences, the threshold for criminality remains intolerably unclear. It is now incumbent on the CPS and the College of Policing to provide guidance that reflects existing protections for freedom of thought and speech – keeping the UK in line with international legal standards. Thoughtcrimes are for 1984 – not 2024.”
Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor, who has been criminally charged for praying silently for three minutes near an abortion facility in Bournemouth, stated:
Nobody should be prosecuted for silent prayer. It is unfathomable that in an apparently free society, I am being criminally charged on the basis of my silent thoughts, in the privacy of my own mind. It’s not different than being tried for a thoughtcrime. I served for 20 years in the army reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan, to protect the fundamental freedoms that this country is built upon. I continue that spirit of service as a health care professional and church volunteer. It troubles me greatly to see our freedoms eroded to the extent that thoughtcrimes are now being prosecuted in the UK.
