Skip to main content

We are urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly supporters) before the end of October to help save babies from abortion 365 days a year. Your first gift as a Life Defender today will be 3X MATCHED. Click here to TRIPLE your monthly commitment.

Live Action LogoLive Action
Praying with Rosary Beads

Pro-life group fights UK buffer zone outlawing prayer within 6 blocks of abortion business

Icon of a scaleHuman Rights·By Bridget Sielicki

Pro-life group fights UK buffer zone outlawing prayer within 6 blocks of abortion business

A pro-life group in yet another British jurisdiction is fighting back against a local “buffer zone” ordinance that prohibits prayer and gathering anywhere near abortion facilities.

As Live Action News reported, the Council of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole voted in October to enact a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) around the abortion facility in Bournemouth. The PSPO created a buffer zone encompassing a wide swath stretching nearly six streets. In addition to preventing any sidewalk counseling from those in the pro-life movement, it also prohibited any sign of religious activity, including prayer, reading scripture, or making the sign of the cross.

URGENT: For every dollar given, 34 more people can be reached with the truth about abortion. Will you join us in this life-saving work as a monthly donor today?

According to Christian Concern, Livia Tossici-Bolt, the local leader of 40 Days for Life Bournemouth, is launching a legal challenge against the Council on the basis that the PSPO was “forced through following a questionable public consultation.” Tossici-Bolt is being represented by the Christian Legal Centre.

“Everyone must have the freedom to pray quietly in a public place. Everyone must have the freedom to give and to receive information. I, and my group of volunteers, would never dream of doing something that causes intimidation and harassment and I find extremely concerning that unfounded accusations of such reprehensible behaviour have been used for ideological gains to discredit genuine humanitarian endeavours,” Tossici-Bolt said in a statement. “We have already been intimidated out of exercising our freedom of thought and of expression, but have continued to defend these fundamental rights with a peaceful conduct.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, decried the rise of PSPO buffer zones. “The effect of the PSPO is to criminalise 40 Days’ activities in Bournemouth and to create an area where no discussion of abortion or even prayer relating to abortion, is permitted,” she said. “There is no evidence whatsoever to show that anyone is being harassed outside abortion clinics. The truth is quite the opposite. It is the abortion supporters who intimidate and harass and do not permit any dissenting viewpoint.”

Lawyers from Christian Legal Centre are also representing a similar lawsuit filed by members of 40 Days for Life in Birmingham.

After two abortions, she chose life when her son survived the abortion that killed his twin image

Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.

Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.

Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!

Dear Reader,

Every day in America, more than 2,800 preborn babies lose their lives to abortion.

That number should break our hearts and move us to action.

Ending this tragedy requires daily commitment from people like you who refuse to stay silent.

Millions read Live Action News each month — imagine the impact if each of us took a stand for life 365 days a year.

Right now, we’re urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly donors) to join us before the end of October. And thanks to a generous $250,000 matching grant, your first monthly gift will be 3X MATCHED to help save lives and build a culture that protects the preborn.

Will you become one of the 500 today? Click here now to become a Live Action Life Defender and have your first gift TRIPLED.

Together, we can end abortion and create a future where every child is cherished and every mother is supported.

Read Next

Read NextCalifornia Gov. Newsom And CA Attorney Gen. Becerra Hold News Conference Responding To Trump Revoking State’s Emissions Waiver
Politics

California Gov. Newsom gives $140M in taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood

Nancy Flanders

·

Spotlight Articles