The UK will begin enforcing a “buffer zone” law that, according to the BBC, criminalizes silent prayer and sidewalk counseling within 150 meters of an abortion clinic.
The UK Government announced this week that the 150-meter (around 500 feet) “buffer zone” law will be enforced beginning October 31,for abortion clinics in England and Wales. The move comes on the heels of the Scottish government’s announcement that a similar buffer zone law would come into force in Scotland on September 24.
>> SCOTLAND EDGES CLOSER TO PASSING DRACONIAN BUFFER ZONE LAW <<
In a press release, the UK government declared that “anyone found guilty of breaking the law will face an unlimited fine.” It was also announced that the College of Policing and Crown Prosecution Service would publish official guidance for police and prosecutors before the end of October.
The UK Parliament passed the law in 2023. Prior to its passage, in a review conducted the UK’s Home Office, Secretary of State for the Home Department Sajid Javid counseled against the proposed law, concluding in an official statement to Parliament that “introducing national buffer zones would not be a proportionate response” to activities of pro-lifers outside abortion facilities, “considering that the majority of activities are more passive in nature.”
Alithea Williams, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children’s public policy manager, condemned the law. “This is a dark day for democracy in this country,” she said in a September 18 news release “From 31st October, it will be a crime to pray against abortion, to offer women help, and, ludicrously, to attempt to ‘influence’ someone on abortion within 150m of facilities that carry out abortions.”
She noted that there is no “fundamental right” to abortion and there is nothing “pro-choice” about not allowing pro-life people to help pregnant women within the zones.
“The shameless pro-abortion lobby continues to lie about the nature and practice of pro-life vigils, where selfless individuals offer help, moral support and real choice to women in crisis pregnancies,” she declared.
Williams pointed out that numerous reviews, including the one of the government’s Home Office, “have found no evidence of harassment of women outside abortion facilities.”
She warned that, “If illiberal and censorious buffer zones are enforced, Britain’s tradition of democracy and liberty will be forever compromised in order to satisfy the whim of a vocal minority of extremists determined to have more abortion and less free speech.”
Williams argued that the buffer zone law not only violates civil liberties, but also “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,” she said. “Many women feel pressured or coerced into having an abortion, and pro-life vigils give them options. Now their choices have been taken away.”
Bishop John Sherrington, the lead bishop for life issues for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, likewise denounced the buffer zone law as a violation of religious and civil liberty, declaring in a statement,
In practice, and despite any other intention, this legislation constitutes discrimination and disproportionately affects people of faith. Religious freedom is the foundational freedom of any free and democratic society, essential for the flourishing and realisation of dignity of every human person. Religious freedom includes the right to manifest one’s private beliefs in public through witness, prayer and charitable outreach, including outside abortion facilities.
By legislating for and implementing so-called ‘safe access zones’, the UK Government has taken an unnecessary and disproportionate step backwards in the protection of religious and civic freedoms in England and Wales.
As CatholicVote previously reported, several prominent pro-lifers have been arrested in recent years in England for praying silently within current buffer zones, including Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of the March for Life UK, who was arrested twice by police, Sebastian Vaughan-Spruce, and Adam Smith-Connor, a UK army veteran who served in Afghanistan.
>> ANOTHER BRITISH PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST FACES TRIAL OVER SILENT PRAYER <<
Smith-Connor, who still awaits trial, was arrested for praying for his deceased son within a buffer zone in Bournemouth. The veteran denounced the government’s prosecution of a pro-lifer “for a thoughtcrime.”
“I did not approach anyone, I did not speak to anyone, I did not breach anyone’s privacy,” he said after his arrest. “I simply stood silently. I am being tried for the prayerful thoughts I held in my head.”
In May 2024, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued a statement condemning the UK government over the unjust arrest of Isabel Vaughn-Spruce for praying silently outside an abortion facility, which the commission cited as an example of “European governments target[ing] individuals for their peaceful religious expression.”
Responding to the report from USCIRF, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce said in a statement published by conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom,
Arresting individuals for silent prayer has put Britain in a position of global embarrassment. Nobody should be criminalised for their mere thoughts – this is a basic principle of a liberal democracy. If we can’t get that right at home, how are we meant to uphold human rights on the world stage?
I was searched, arrested, put in a police van, charged and placed on trial for a “thoughtcrime” – for peacefully and imperceptibly praying outside an abortion facility. With support from ADF UK, I was fully vindicated in court – but my case isn’t a one-off. The Home Office can prevent my arrest from recurring by clarifying in their upcoming guidance that, while we all condemn harassment, freedom of thought and consensual conversation must remain free.
>> PROPONENTS OF ‘BUFFER ZONES’ IN SCOTLAND SAY FREE SPEECH IS SECONDARY TO ABORTION ACCESS <<