Woman Arrested for Silently Praying Outside UK Abortion Facility
A pro-life volunteer in the UK has been arrested by authorities for silently praying near an abortion facility in Kings Norton, Birmingham.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce is the Director of UK March for Life, an organization that opposes abortion, and has been quietly praying outside of abortion facilities nearly once a week for approximately 20 years. “I pray for my friends who have experienced abortion, and for the women who are thinking about going through it themselves,” Vaughan-Spruce said after her arrest.
She was standing on a street corner, outside of the BPAS Robert Clinic, which performs abortions, not speaking aloud or causing any disturbance when officers confronted her. The location has been dubbed a “censorship zone” by ADF UK because of the harsh penalties on speech — and now thought. Alliance Defending Freedom published video footage of their interaction.
“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.'”
Fox News
Officer: “What are you here for today?”
Vaughan-Spruce: “Physically I am just standing here.”
Officer: “Why her of all places?”
Vaughan-Spruce: “This is an abortion facility.”
Officer: “Okay, that’s why I asked you. Are you standing here as part of a protest?”
Vaughan-Spruce: “No I’m not protesting.”
Officer: “Are you praying?”
Vaughan-Spruce: “I might be praying in my head.”
After the brief conversation, regarding her what she was doing, the officers asked if Vaughan-Spruce would willingly go with them to the station for further questioning. She declined, stating that if she had a choice she would prefer not to go, which is when the officers announced that they were placing her under arrest and would be forcibly taking her to the police station. Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for allegedly violating the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) and was
“‘It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind,’ Vaughan-Spruce said following her arrest. ‘I was exercising my freedom of thought, my freedom of religion, inside the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalized for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK.'”
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce — Fox News
The UK has cracked down recently on verbal dissent, but to arrest an individual for thoughts shared only with oneself is the very definition of an Orwellian nightmare.
“It is truly astonishing that the law has granted local authorities such wide and unaccountable discretion, that now even thoughts deemed ‘wrong’ can lead to a humiliating arrest and a criminal charge. A mature democracy should be able to differentiate between criminal conduct and the peaceful exercise of constitutionally protected rights.”
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK
The US similarly protects abortion facilities under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act by providing a perimeter around clinics in which it is illegal to petition patients seeking abortions and providers. Legally, pro-life crisis pregnancy centers are afforded this protection as well, however the DOJ and other enforcement institutions have refrained from making even a single arrest after the string of violent attacks on this facilities. The federal government’s energy, and apparently the UK police force’s energy, is instead spent going after peaceful pro-life activists like Mark Houck and Isabel Vaughan-Spruce.
Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are uniquely American concepts that are dangerously close to being lost in a history book under the false pretense of a time of verbal anarchy.
