Campaigner: Silent Prayers Near Abortion Clinics Shouldn’t Be Illegal

Lois McLatchie Miller, senior legal communications officer at ADF UK, speaks to NTD's "British Thought Leaders" programme. NTD

Censorship is a “lose-lose situation for everybody,” says a campaigner who’s supporting defendants charged after praying outside abortion clinics.

Lois McLatchie Miller is the senior legal communications officer at ADF UK, the UK branch of an international Christian legal advocacy organization.

Speaking to NTD’s “British Thought Leaders” programme about recent cases in England in which individuals were fined and charged after praying silently around abortion clinics, Ms. McLatchie Miller argued the so-called buffer zones or safe zones around abortion clinics limits women’s choice rather than protecting them.

“It’s not pro choice. It’s no choice. It’s removing options from women,” she said.

“These are consensual conversations taking place between two adults about an important topic. Why should the state come in and censor a conversation, assuming on the woman’s behalf that she doesn’t want to hear this information? That seems very kind of paternalistic and unsupportive of women to me,” she said.

Ms. McLatchie Miller argued that apart from silent prayers, other pro-life activities around the clinics should be allowed too because harassment is “not common” and “already illegal.”

The campaigner said she appreciates that people hold different views on abortion, but argues that “censoring people who don’t agree with you is a lose-lose situation for everybody.”

“Once the principle of censorship has been brought in, once you can say: on this area of public street, on this area of public land, you cannot express a view or even think a view contrary to the opinion of the state, and then you can apply it to anywhere else,” she said. “We have to protect free speech for everybody or else we have free speech for nobody.”

Public Space Protection Orders

England’s first abortion clinic “safe zone” was introduced in April 2018 after campaigners advocating for the choice of abortion claimed women were harassed by pro-life demonstrators.

London’s Ealing Council issued a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) for an area around an NHS abortion clinic, banning any act or attempted act of approval or disapproval about abortion-related issues, including praying or counselling, except in a designated area about 100 meters away. Four people are allowed in the designated area as long as they stay relatively quiet and their signs put together are no bigger than a sheet of A3 paper.

Pro-life campaigners tried to challenge the PSPO but the court ruled that it was lawful.

Four more councils in England have since issued PSPOs around their local abortion clinics including London’s Richmond, Manchester, Birmingham, and Bournemouth, but these zones do not include a designated area.

Since the last two PSPOs were introduced last year, in September in Birmingham and October in Bournemouth, three people have been charged after praying in the so-called safe zones in silence, although one was holding a sign that said “praying for free speech.”

Father Sean Gough, a Catholic priest, was charged in Birmingham after he held the aforementioned sign. According to ADF, the clinic was closed at the time. ADF said the priest was also charged for parking his car in the zone because it had a bumper sticker reading “unborn lives matter.”

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has since dropped charges against him but said they could be reinstated. According to ADF, Mr. Gough has said he would pursue a clear verdict on his charges in court.

Father Sean Gough (C), a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and Isabel Vaughan-Spruce (R) at Birmingham Magistrates' Court where they are accused of protesting outside an abortion clinic inside a Birmingham abortion facility censorship zone. PA Media

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested twice at the same clinic in Birmingham.

She was first arrested in December last year after admitting to police officers she “might be praying in [her] head.”

The CPS and Birmingham Magistrates’ Court both dismissed charges against her, in January and February respectively, but she was arrested again in March for doing the same thing.

West Midlands Police in June dropped her bail conditions but said her case had been submitted to the CPS to consider prosecution.

In Bournemouth, army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was issued a fine after admitting to council officers that he was “praying for [his] son.”

Ms. McLatchie Miller said Mr. Smith-Connor feels deeply about abortion because he has been filled with “deep regrets and remorse” after having paid for an abortion for his then-girlfriend 22 years ago.

He “didn’t pay that fine, because he thought it went against his conscience to say that in the UK that is ever illegal to be praying,” Ms. McLatchie Miller said.

Mr. Smith-Connor was later charged and is awaiting trial in November.

Pro-life campaigner Adam Smith-Connor in an undated file photo. Courtesy of ADF UK

However, the first person arrested after praying near an abortion clinic in England was not in a PSPO-protected zone.

Rosa Lalor, from Liverpool, was arrested in 2021 after telling a police officer near an abortion clinic that she was walking and praying because the officer believed she was protesting and that wasn’t a “reasonable excuse” to be out of her house during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to ADF, Merseyside Police later conceded it was wrong to arrest her and dropped charges against her.

Normally used for substance abuse and criminality issues, PSPOs create zones that enable local authorities to prevent certain anti-social activities from taking place in an area. Besides the abortion clinic “safe zones,” local councils have also begun issuing PSPOs around vaccination clinics.

Public Order Act

In May, the Public Order bill became law, mandating “safe access” zones across England and Wales.

The law criminalises any acts with the intent of, or reckless as to whether it has the effect of influencing any person’s decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services within 150 metres from any part of an abortion clinic.

Asked if she expected an increase in arrests over silent prayers, Ms. McLatchie Miller said it remains to be seen.

Referring to safe access zones as “censorship zones,” she said, “That law is yet to be put into action, and right now the government are [sic] drafting guidance as to how to implement that law. So this guidance will be used by prosecutors and police, and they'll refer to that to see how they are to implement these censorship zones.