Is Silently Praying Near an Abortion Facility a "Thoughtcrime"?
If I told you that you could be arrested and criminally charged for silently praying near an abortion facility – would you believe me? Many of you reading this would question me, and rightfully so. It sounds like something out of George Orwell’s 1984. Is this really how far our culture has gone?
Unfortunately, in the United Kingdom (U.K.), this is actually happening. According to reports, on December 6, 2022:
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the Director of the UK March for Life, was standing near the BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham . . . when police approached her after an onlooker complained she might be praying outside the abortion facility. . . . Birmingham’s authorities established a buffer zone around abortion clinics, which makes it illegal for an individual to engage in any act or attempted act of approval or disapproval as it relates to abortion and includes “verbal or written means” like “prayer or counseling.”
As Vaughan-Spruce explained:
It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. . . . I was exercising my freedom of thought, my freedom of religion, inside the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalised for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK.
The local police, however, disagreed and arrested her for praying.
Vaughan-Spruce was subsequently charged “with four counts of failing to comply with a Public Space Protection Order, which prohibits certain activities that foster ‘anti-social behaviour.’” As shocking as this may sound, consider how such Public Space Protective Orders (PSPOs) have been described.
In the U.K., PSPOs “allow local areas to counter unreasonable and persistent behaviour that affects the quality of life of its residents. They can send a clear message that certain behaviours will not be tolerated, and help reassure residents that unreasonable conduct is being addressed.” Is silent prayer near an abortion facility now considered unreasonable (and even unlawful) conduct in the U.K.?
Though it has been reported that Vaughan-Spruce was recently acquitted (after she courageously demanded a trial), she has since been arrested again by the West Midlands Police “for standing near the British Pregnancy Advisory Service’s clinic in the Kings Norton area of Birmingham.”
To make matters worse, U.K. Members of Parliament (MoP) just “rejected attempts to allow ‘silent prayer’ outside abortion clinics in England and Wales . . . amid warnings new buffer zone measures risk making ‘thoughtcrime’ a reality.”
In fact, U.K. MoP just “approved censorship/buffer zones outside of abortion facilities in both England and Wales. Clause 11 of the new Public Order Bill, implements a 150 meter (492 foot), perimeter around every clinic. The bill would criminalize any form of ‘influence’ outside of abortion clinics, which includes . . . silent prayer.”
Those of us who reside in the United States are offered some peace of mind thanks, in large part, to our First Amendment free speech protections.
However, despite these protections, the ACLJ is still fighting against multiple pro-abortion buffer zone laws here in the United States. Even though these laws do not quite rise to the extreme level of those in the U.K., they are nonetheless very serious – and unconstitutional. In fact, we’ve seen pro-life Americans’ homes raided by the Biden FBI for demonstrating outside abortion clinics (thankfully, the first victim of this government abuse was quickly acquitted in court). And we even have a client, a pro-life pastor, who was threatened with arrest by Biden’s Secret Service for praying on the public sidewalk outside the Chinese Embassy.
The point is the free speech rights at stake resulting from the implementation of such thoughtcrime laws in the U.K. should alarm us all. And this kind of abuse of power is already headed for the United States.
We must stay engaged to ensure our fundamental right to speak out against abortion is not lost.