Thought crimes? British law blocking protesters from abortion clinics leads to arrests for silent prayer

Recent laws in the UK to keep protesters away from abortion clinics are leading to arrests for literal thought crimes – where people praying silently are forcibly detained, then fined, for what’s going on in their minds.

The Orwellian situation could serve as a warning to Americans who are too dismissive of government efforts to censor conservative thought, as was the case with the COVID-19 protocols, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and countless other examples of real news being called “fake” for political opportunity.

In the UK, local ordinances called public spaces protection orders have been around for a few years, and last year the wider Safe Access to Abortion Act received royal assent, meaning the monarchy approves the legislation while lawmakers work out the details.

What all this means in real life for anti-abortion citizens is that they should keep their opinions to themselves if they are within 150 yards of a hospital or clinic performing the procedure — even if those opinions are expressed in their own houses or their heads.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, for example, was searched and arrested by three police officers for allegedly praying while near an abortion facility in November 2022, according to Alliance Defending Freedom International.

She did not protest, carry a sign or engage with anyone, but it was enough for officers to receive complaints “that she may be silently praying in her mind,” the free speech advocacy group said.

While Vaughan-Spruce, the co-director of March for Life UK, was eventually acquitted, she was arrested again, this time by six officers, for a similar offense on the grounds that while she was in the “censorship zone,” as critics call it. , an act of approval or disapproval of abortion is prohibited, even “prayer or counsel.”

The case exemplifies the dangers of what supporters call “buffer zones”, ADF UK says, adding that the laws will “inevitably be used by police officers to erode the most basic freedoms”.

The Free Speech Union appeared to drive home this point in a report which found that while equality, diversity and inclusion are a “golden thread” and heavily integrated into UK police training, inadequate attention is paid to free expressions, even if it is codified by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The UK free speech group reported last week that a woman named Emma (she preferred not to be named) received a “Dear Resident” letter warning her that her home was in an abortion buffer zone .

A Catholic who regularly holds pro-life activism meetings in her home now worries she will be arrested for doing so or for walking past a nearby abortion clinic wearing her T-shirt. Pro-life and Proud” or she will pray the Rosary outdoors with her beads.

The letter Emma received stated that snitching, a hallmark of communist countries such as North Korea, Cuba and China, is encouraged.

“You can report a group or individual that you believe is breaking the law,” the note said. The buffer zone law carries a fine of up to $13,000.

The Free Press also reports that Adam Smith-Connor, a British military veteran and father, was convicted this month of praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, England, and ordered to pay $11,700. an amount he raised in a single day at a crowdfunding. website.

“Today the court ruled that certain thoughts – silent thoughts – can be illegal in the UK,” he said in response to the ruling. “That can’t be right. All I did was pray to God in the privacy of my mind—and yet I am condemned as a criminal?”

His lawyer would have called the court’s decision a “legal turning point of immense proportions”.

Also in Bournemouth, 40 Days for Life member Livia Tossici-Bolt joined another group called Christian Concern to challenge the area’s buffer zone, although the high court ruled against them and in favor of the Public Spaces Protection Order, also known as PSPO.

Even Catholic priests are not immune, as Father Sean Gough of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England, was arrested for praying near an abortion clinic while holding a sign that read “Pray for Freedom from expression’ and for parking nearby while his car had a sticker. reading: “Unborn Lives Matter.”

Also in Birmingham, according to The Free Press, Patrick Parkes was praying silently outside an abortion clinic when police asked him to “kindly move somewhere else, outside the exclusion zone, where you have your human rights.” If he refused, they threatened him with a fine.

Such rules could become even more restrictive with the Kingdom’s Public Order Act 2023, which gives law enforcement authorities more power to prevent and respond to what it considers disruptive protests, which is due to come into force in England and Wales on Halloween this week – “thereby effectively introducing the first ‘thought crime’ into British law”, says ADF International.

While there have so far been no documented incidents of people being arrested in the United States for praying silently near abortion clinics, many protesters have been prosecuted for allegedly blocking access to them.

Paul Bond is a veteran journalist. You can follow X @WriterPaulBond.