As of today it is a criminal offence to attempt to "influence a person’s decision to access or provide abortion services within 150 metres of a clinic" in England and Wales. Such "influence" could include silent prayer according to the government’s new draconian rules.
“Protection zones around abortion clinics are now in force”, states a post from the UK Home Office on social media platform <em>X</em>.
“We are safeguarding women from any form of intimidation or harassment.”
The new law has been called a “national disgrace”, by Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, speaking on behalf of March for Life UK, the pro-life organisation that strives to help and protect vulnerable women and the unborn, and who herself has been repeatedly arrested and prosecuted for praying silently outside abortion clinics.
“This is a shameful day for our country,” Vaughan-Spruce says, before noting that so-called buffer zones around facilities providing abortion services have been legalised with “unlimited fine risks for those caught breaking the obscure rules” set out by the government.
She notes that annually in the UK there are about 250,000 abortions, while about 50 per cent of those are repeat abortions, and include abortions as a result of taking abortion pills that result in some women having to go to hospital due to complications.
“Yet people in our government are trying to criminalise those offering alternatives to pregnant women or even silently praying about this issue.”
The last Conservative government had informed police that silent prayer should be allowed inside the new “safe access zones”, following controversy and protests about Christians being arrested for what were in effect the first “thought crimes” to be penalised in the UK for centuries.
But the new Labour government ditched draft guidance by the Conservatives that would protect silent prayer. The changes mean that silent prayer will be banned in the zones, although it will be at the discretion of the police to determine whether it meets the threshold for prosecution.
The new law scrapped exemptions allowing “consensual” communication within the zones, such as handing out leaflets or activists engaging those arriving at an abortion clinic in conversation.
The new law states that it is illegal for anyone to do anything that “obstructs someone from using abortion services or causes harassment or distress to a clinic’s patient or employee”, the <em>Daily</em> <em>Telegraph </em>reports.
The scope of its application includes making it illegal for someone to “intentionally influence someone’s decision to use abortion services”, which would in effect outlaw offering help or advice or simply a kind word.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/31/anti-abortion-activists-set-up-outside-clinic-safe-zones-on-first-day-of-new-law-in-england"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">According</mark></a> to the <em>Guardian</em>, pro-choice campaigners and providers welcomed new Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance issued on 30 October which specifically mentions “holding a vigil, or praying, including silent prayer” within the zones.
Such actions, the <em>Guardian</em> notes, along with holding bibles and displaying images of foetuses or babies, were cited as having a potential impact on people accessing abortion services.
It adds that Conservative and Democratic Unionist party MPs had argued that the bill which created the buffer zones was leading “to the territory of thought crimes”. But an amendment they tabled, designed to ensure that no offence is committed if a person is “engaged in consensual communication or in silent prayer” outside clinics or hospitals offering abortion services, was defeated.
<a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/blow-to-uk-pro-life-movement-as-silent-prayer-at-abortion-clinics-again-faces-ban/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong><em>RELATED: Silent prayer at abortion clinics again faces ban and criminal prosecution</em></strong></mark></a>
<em>Photo: Graphic from Home Office announcement about new law on social media platform X; screenshot. </em>
