Thought crimes? UK law blocking protesters from abortion clinics lead to arrests for silent prayer

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

The Orwellian situation might serve as a warning to Americans too dismissive of government efforts to censor conservative thought, as was the case regarding COVID-19 protocols, Hunter Biden’s laptop and myriad other examples of real news being dubbed “fake” for political expediency.

In the UK, local ordinances dubbed Public Spaces Protection Orders sprang up a few years ago, and last year the wider Safe Access to Abortion Services Act received Royal Assent, meaning the monarchy approves of the legislation while lawmakers hammer out the details.

What all this means in real life to citizens who object to abortion is that they should leave their opinions to themselves if they are within 150 meters of a hospital or clinic that performs the procedure – even if those opinions are expressed in their own homes, or their heads.

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

She was not protesting, carrying a sign or engaging with anyone, but it was enough that officers received complaints “that she might be praying silently in her mind,” the free-speech advocacy group also says. 

While Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of the March for Life UK, was ultimately acquitted, she was arrested again, this time by six officers, for a similar offense on the basis that while inside the “censorship zone,” as critics dub it, an act of approval or disapproval of abortion is outlawed, even “prayer or counseling.”

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

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

The the British free-speech group reported last week that a woman named Emma (she preferred her last name not be revealed) received a “dear resident” letter to alert her that her home is in an abortion buffer zone.

A Catholic who regularly holds pro-life activism meetings in her home, now worries she’ll be arrested for doing so, or for strolling past the nearby abortion clinic while wearing her “Pro-life and Proud” T-shirt, or praying with her Rosary beads while outdoors.

The letter Emma received noted that snitching, a hallmark of Communist countries like North Korea, Cuba and China, is encouraged. 

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

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

“Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts – silent thoughts – can be illegal in the United Kingdom," he said in response to the ruling. "That cannot be right. All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind – and yet I stand convicted as a criminal?" 

His attorney reportedly called the court decision a “legal turning point of immense proportions.”

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

Even Catholic priests are not immune, considering Father Sean Gough from the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England, was arrested for praying near an abortion clinic while holding a sign reading “Praying for free speech,” and for parking nearby while his car sported a bumper sticker reading, “Unborn lives matter.”

Also in Birmingham, according to The Free Press, Patrick Parkes was silently praying outside an abortion clinic when police instructed him to “kindly move elsewhere outside the exclusion zone where you’ve got your human rights.” If he refused, they threatened to fine him.

Such rules could become even more restrictive with Public Order Act 2023, a UK that gives law enforcement more authority to prevent and respond to what it considers disruptive protests, set to go into effect in England and Wales on Halloween Day this week – “thereby effectively introducing the first ‘thought crime’ into UK law,” says the ADF International. 

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

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