According to The Daily Mail, members of Parliament (MPs) voted for the legislation in 2023 to forbid protests, including silent prayer, within 150 meters of a hospital or clinic providing services that kill unborn babies.
However, existing draft guidance still permits silent prayer and consensual communication, including distributing leaflets or talking to people, within the buffer zones. These draft guidelines, that stated prayer should not be considered unlawful, read:
“Silent prayer, being the engagement of the mind and thought in prayer towards God, is protected as an absolute right under the Human Rights Act 1998 and should not, on its own, be considered to be an offense under any circumstances.”
Having said that, three Home Office ministers, including Cooper, voted against permitting silent prayer near abortion clinics.
According to The Daily Mail, pro-abortion groups wrote to Cooper exhorting her to alter the guidance, claiming that pro-lifers were “handing out false medical information in leaflets” to discourage people from getting abortions.
This is a black day for democracy and basic civil liberties. Ordinary, peaceful citizens now risk substantial jail time for the simple act of praying in public, and offering help to women in need. Parliament has literally just criminalized compassion.
Louise McCudden, of the anti-life group MSI Reproductive Choices, alleged:
“With a Home Secretary who voted for safe access zones, a Home Office team of fierce reproductive rights advocates like Diana Johnson and Jess Phillips, and a Government that says it wants to make tackling violence against women a priority, we are cautiously optimistic that they recognise the dangers of watering down this legislation.”
Notably, McCudden failed to provide concrete evidence that pro-lifers were engaging in “violence against women”.
In response, pro-life advocates maintain that silent prayer should never be deemed as a form of protest, slamming the government’s proposed ban as an assault on religious freedom.
On October 18, 2022, MPs voted to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics. New Clause 11 of the Public Order Bill was given the green light by MPs by 297 votes to 110. The clause purported to establish so-called "buffer zones" around abortion facilities, outlawing any attempts to influence “any person's decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services in that buffer zone”. A jail term of up to two years could be imposed on such an “offense”.
In response to the government’s 2022 ruling, Alithea Williams, Public Policy Manager of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), stated:
“This is a black day for democracy and basic civil liberties. Ordinary, peaceful citizens now risk substantial jail time for the simple act of praying in public, and offering help to women in need. Parliament has literally just criminalized compassion.
“This is not just an outrageous assault on civil liberties, it removes a real lifeline for women. Many children are alive today because their mother received help and support from a compassionate pro-life person outside a clinic. Many women feel like they have to choose to have an abortion, and pro-life vigils give them options. Now their choices have been taken away,” Williams added.
True enough, in 2023, pro-life campaigner and devout Catholic Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested outside the BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham. Likewise, Catholic priest Fr. Sean Gough faced charges for silently praying outside the same abortion facility. A report by The Pillar stated that while authorities ultimately dropped charges against Fr.Gough, they reinforced their claim that they could reinstate his charges at any time.
Nonetheless, thousands of undaunted pro-lifers, including Catholic priests and religious, showed up in London on September 7 at the yearly “March for Life” , despite the Starmer government coming after Britons’ “wrongthink” sooner than one can expect.
In turn, Tory peer David Frost accurately portrayed the situation in Britain in an X post, stating that “free speech is under threat in Labour Britain, and so too, it seems, is free non-speech.”
Nonetheless, thousands of undaunted pro-lifers, including Catholic priests and religious, showed up in London on September 7 at the yearly “March for Life” , despite the Starmer government coming after Britons’ “wrongthink” sooner than one can expect.
Vaughan-Spruce, one of the event’s co-organizers, addressed the crowd, saying:
“We’re marching because women, and their babies, deserve far better than abortion.
“It’s clear that abortion is not healthcare… unborn children are not a disease to get rid of, but are humans, who should be treated with respect and equality.”
Surely there remains a glimmer of hope in Britain for the lives of the unborn.
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