The pro-life battle to defend the lives of preborn babies is facing yet another challenge in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Britain.
According to the Public Order Act, pro-life groups gathering within 150 meters of medical facilities (eg: clinics or hospitals) that provide abortions will be banned from October 31 onwards. Strikingly, an application of the anti-life law could criminalize actions to “intentionally influence someone’s decision to use abortion services,” reports the Daily Telegraph.
Pro-abortion activists allege that the law — which obtained royal assent in May last year — will criminalize any actions regarded as obstructing or even influencing someone’s decision away from seeking an abortion. A detailed version of the law reads:
It is an offense for a person who is within a safe access zone to do an act with the intent of, or reckless as to whether it has the effect of—
(a) influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic,
(b) obstructing or impeding any person accessing, providing, or facilitating the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic, or
(c) causing harassment, alarm or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic,
where the person mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) is within the safe access zone for the abortion clinic.
The law defines a “safe access zone” as “an area which is within a boundary which is 150 meters from any part of an abortion clinic or any access point to any building or site that contains an abortion clinic and is—
(a) on or adjacent to a public highway or public right of way,
(b) in an open space to which the public has access,
(c) within the curtilage of an abortion clinic, or building or site which contains an abortion clinic, or
(d) in any location that is visible from a public highway, public right of way, open space to which the public have access, or the curtilage of an abortion clinic.
Notably, pro-life groups worry that silent prayer could fall within the scope of the law, slamming the legislation as infringing on religious belief and freedom of expression, notes Sky News. Based on draft guidance on the law from the previous Conservative government, it seems that silent prayer may still be permitted within the zones.
READ: No, silent prayer is not ‘reproductive coercion’ just because someone questions the motive
For one, Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, stated the zones will mean “vital practical support provided by volunteers outside abortion clinics, which helps to provide a genuine choice, and offers help to women who may be undergoing coercion, will be removed.”
Likewise, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales decried the buffer zone law, saying that “such legislation remains deeply concerning as a threat to freedom of speech, thought, conscience and religion for people of all faiths and none.” Bishop John Sherrington, the Lead Bishop for Life Issues, declared that legislation contained in section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 will unduly affect people of faith by limiting freedom of speech and by outlawing a variety of activities, based on a report by the Catholic Herald.
The bishop’s statement reads:
As the Catholic Bishops’ Conference repeatedly stated during the passage of the Public Order Bill last year, ‘safe access zone’ legislation is unnecessary and disproportionate.
We condemn all harassment and intimidation of women and hold that, as was accepted in a Home Office Review, there are already laws and mechanisms in place to protect women from such behavior.
In practice, and despite any other intention, this legislation constitutes discrimination and disproportionately affects people of faith. Religious freedom is the foundational freedom of any free and democratic society, essential for the flourishing and realization of dignity of every human person.
Bishop Sherrington added, “Religious freedom includes the right to manifest one’s private beliefs in public through witness, prayer and charitable outreach, including outside abortion facilities.”
