UNITED KINGDOM: Silent prayer near abortion clinics ‘is not a crime’, Home Secretary said
Forum internum, forum externum?
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (05.09.2025) – On 3 June 2025, the Catholic Herald revealed that Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote to every police force in the country to clarify that “silent prayer, within itself, is not unlawful” in the UK, stressing hereby that this is a matter of freedom of thought. The letter has however not been published on government websites or in official press releases.
The letter further reminded officers that “holding lawful opinions, even if those opinions may offend others, is not a criminal offence”. This public position followed several police arrests of people opposed to abortion (*), praying silently near clinics where such medical interventions were known to be performed.
Prayer ban in ‘buffer zones’: some court cases
Some elderly have been arrested, charged or even criminally convicted for simply praying silently or offering consensual conversations within large censored zones outside abortion facilities.
Under current legislation in England and Wales, “influencing” a person’s decision to access an abortion facility, within 150m of the facility, is a crime carrying a potentially unlimited fine. In Scotland, it is 200m.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic was arrested twice for praying silently near a Birmingham abortion clinic in the 10 months preceding the clarification of the Home Secretary. She was placed under investigation despite having won a £13,000 in a financial compensation from West Midlands Police in 2024.
Livia Rossici-Bolt, 64, a retired biomedical scientist with dual UK-Italian citizenship, received a two-year conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £20,000 in costs after standing opposite a British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinic in Bournemouth, approximately 50m away, with a sign reading “Here to talk if you want to.”
Adam Smith-Connor, an army veteran, was convicted in November for silently praying for a few minutes near the same abortion facility in Bournemouth and ordered to pay £9,000 in costs.
In Scotland, Rose Docherty, 75, was arrested in February 2025 for standing outside Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with a sign reading “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” The case was finally dropped.
A new ideological warfare in Europe with the US at the background
Behind these incidents, a new ideological warfare is looming on the horizon in Europe, and not only in the UK. It concerns several natural rights – freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, thought, belief and religion – clashing with a non-natural right, the one to abortion granted by the State.
The battlefields will be in courtrooms, as in the United States, and at the European Court of Human Rights to create jurisprudence.
In the United States, there are ongoing fierce debates between pro-life and pro-abortion movements in politics, in public space and in courtrooms. It is well-known that the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Churches are against abortion and are supported by President Trump and his administration on this issue.
In August, the US State Department raised the issue concerning Britain in its annual Human Rights Report.
A number of alleged quotes were published in the British press such as “egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty” and some other variations but the real phrasing of the US Report in full context was more moderate:
“The la generally provided for freedom of speech, including for members of the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right, though there were specific areas of concern, including involving restrictions on political speech deemed “hateful” or “offensive” as well as speech within “Public Spaces Protections Orders” areas (allowing local councils to limit speech rights within designated areas) and “Safe Access Zones” (limiting speech rights around abortion clinics). These restrictions on freedom of speech could include prohibitions on efforts to influence others when inside a restricted area, even through prayer or silent protests.”
Back to the political arena. On 14 February 2025, US Vice-President JD Vance said in his globally shocking speech at the Munich Security Conference (*):
“A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes — not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.
And after British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied, simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.
Now, the officers were not moved. Adam was found guilty of breaking the government’s new ‘buffer zones’ law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could “influence” a person’s decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.
Now I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no. This last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law. Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected of guilty of thought crime in Britain and across Europe.”
In fact, the claim that Scotland distributed letters warning residents not to pray privately at home in prayer-banned areas, or encouraging them to report neighbors for “thought crimes” in restricted areas is not true and is not supported by the law or official communications. Multiple reputable sources — including the Guardian, The Times, and the Scottish government itself —have debunked those last assertions about Scotland. Fake news.
(*) Comment: HRWF has no position on the abortion issue
Photo:Wikimedia
