Christian preacher faces prison for displaying Bible verse in UK buffer zone

A 72-year-old preacher from Wales is facing up to a year in prison after holding a sign with a Bible verse outside of a London abortion facility on February 6. The action violated the area’s “buffer zone” law which prohibits pro-life activity outside of abortion facilities.

Stephen Green held a sign that said, “Psalm 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb,” outside an MSI Reproductive Choices facility in London. According to the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Green, the sign was allegedly in violation of the area’s Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which criminalizes “protesting, namely engaging in an act of approval/disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services.”

An abortion facility staff member reported Green’s activity to the police. According to police evidence, that staff member then received a text message from the police saying they were treating it as an “emergency.” Green was reportedly gone by the time police arrived, but seven months later he was served with a notice of prosecution.

Green said he was “deeply shocked” to receive the summons.

“I see this prosecution as an attack on the Bible and free speech. I am determined to defend myself and fight for justice,” Green said. “People are right to be concerned about the buffer zone legislation. To bar Christian witness and to control what people can say in an area is draconian and anti-Christian. There is a huge principle at stake here. If we are not free to hold a sign with a verse from Psalm 139 on it in a London street, then none of us is free.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, added, “It is worrying that a man in his 70s holding a sign with a Bible verse on it is now being treated as an ‘emergency’ situation by the police. Buffer zones are an oppressive part of the current culture which force consent and silence dissent.”

Green’s arrest is the latest in a number of arrests due to buffer zone laws in the United Kingdom. Pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce recently had charges dropped after she was arrested for silently praying outside an abortion facility. Likewise, Catholic priest Father Sean Gough had charges against him dropped following an arrest for prayer within a buffer zone. Gough had been charged with “intimidating service-users” of the abortion facility, even though it was closed at the time. Adam Smith-Connor, a man who says he lost his son to abortion, is facing criminal charges after he was found praying outside an abortion business.

Green is expected to stand trial in January.