UK high court allows abortion buffer zone to stand, says even silent prayer is ‘detrimental’
A court in the United Kingdom ruled last week that a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which establishes a “buffer zone” around the Robert Clinic abortion facility in Bournemouth, Dorset, can stand.
The PSPO prohibits all pro-life activity within the designated buffer zone area, including silent prayer and reading from the Bible. It had been challenged by the organization Christian Concern and Livia Tossici-Bolt, who leads the group 40 Days for Life Bournemouth.
In their ruling, the two High Court judges, Lord Justice Warby and Mrs Justice Thornton, said that the PSPO is justified due to their belief that pro-life activity within the zone had caused harm. “It is, in our judgment, naïve and simplistic to suggest that activities of this kind in this context cannot be considered ‘detrimental’… just because they are silent,” they said. “The protest activities described in the evidence, including silent prayer and the handing out of leaflets, were… outside a clinic to which women were resorting at particularly sensitive and difficult moments in their lives.”
Calling abortion a “human right,” the judges said that the buffer zone is “justified by the legitimate aim of protecting the rights of women attending the clinic, their associates, and the staff.”
Tossici-Bolt expressed her disappointment at the ruling. “Everyone must have the freedom to pray quietly in a public place. Everyone must have the freedom to give and to receive information,” she said. “We have already been intimidated out of exercising our freedom of thought and of expression, but have continued to defend these fundamental rights.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, also noted that peaceful pro-life activity helps many women who feel that abortion is their only option.
“Peaceful witness near abortion centres are helpful to many women in crisis pregnancies, offering genuine choice by providing support,” she said. “Whatever the guidance or law says, arresting peaceful pro-lifers in these zones clearly breaches their human rights. The measures brought in by Bournemouth Council are disturbing in that they prevent women from being given access to alternatives to abortion.”
Christian Legal Centre has said it will appeal the ruling.
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