Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 73(1) February 2023

News

Parliament votes to impose buffer zones around abortion clinics

In October 2022 MPs passed an amendment imposing so-called “buffer zones” around abortion facilities. New Clause 11, which MPs approved by 297 votes to 110, will make it illegal to interfere “with any person's decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services in that buffer zone” – an offence punishable by up to 2 years in prison.

Commenting on this SPUC said that “This was a black day for democracy and basic civil liberties. Ordinary, peaceful citizens now risk substantial jail time for the simple act of praying in public, and offering help to women in need. Parliament has literally just criminalised compassion.

"This is not just an outrageous assault on civil liberties, it 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. Many women feel like they have to choose to have an abortion, and pro-life vigils give them options. Now their choices have been taken away.

The Society for Protection of Unborn Children reports that “Freedom of speech and assembly are under threat in the UK. We are facing repeated attempts to ban pro-lifers from offering help to women, and even praying, outside abortion clinics. In the last year alone SPUC also reminds us that the Scottish Parliament has consulted on a Bill which, if passed, will criminalise pro-life citizens for holding vigils outside abortion facilities. People could be jailed for up to 2 years for praying and offering help to women.

In Northern Ireland, the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill has made it an offence to "influence" anyone within a buffer zone. It faces legal challenges after a court was told that the Bill potentially violates the terms of the Human Rights Act and Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

At a local level, Bournemouth Council has imposed a Public Space Protection Order that bans offering counselling to women seeking abortion, as well as explicitly forbidding specific forms of prayer, including audible prayers, genuflection, and even making the sign of the cross.

Buffer zones are illiberal, discriminatory and cruel. Pro-lifers must have the right to bear witness peacefully in public, and women must have the right to receive the information and support they offer.

Woman arrested for standing still, saying nothing, and not protesting.

The insanity of all this was shown in December when footage showed the arrest of Isabel­Vaughan-Spruce, who was charged with breaking a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for praying silently nearby an abortion facility in Kings Norton, Birmingham, on four occasions.

The charity volunteer, who has been providing support to vulnerable women and children for many years, was standing silently, praying, until police approached her and asked her what she was doing. She said she “might” be praying inside her own mind. She was searched, interrogated at a police station, arrested, and charged with breaking the PSPO by silently praying inside her mind.

In a country which celebrates the principle of freedom of thought, this woman has been arrested for doing nothing other than thinking. Silent prayer, seeking to praise God in our minds, or to supplicate for others, silently in the privacy of our own thoughts, has been criminalized in a country which claims to be a free country.

Buffer zones appear to be popular with politicians just now, but they are undemocratic and tyrannical. Given the evidence on ”turnarounds”, buffer zones also deny at least some women the opportunity of help at a moment of crisis.

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