VICTORY: Spain criminal court acquits 21 pro-life prayer vigil participants

A criminal court in Vitoria, Spain has fully acquitted 21 pro-life volunteers accused of harassment for participating in peaceful prayer vigils outside an abortion business during the 2022 40 Days for Life campaign.

Key Takeaways:

• Twenty-one participants in a peaceful pro-life 40 Days for Life prayer vigil were recently acquitted by a criminal court in Spain.

• Though they had been accused of various kinds of harassment by workers at the abortion business, the judge found that there was no evidence of this, and acquitted the pro-lifers.

The Details:

In the fall of 2022, the pro-life activists quietly held signs declaring, “You are not alone” and “We are praying for you" during a 40 Days for Life vigil.

Judge Beatriz Román decreed that pro-life advocates' behavior was merely the exercise of the right to free assembly. An English translation of the judge's statements from Lavanguardia.com reads: 

"There is no doubt that the defendants did nothing but exercise their free right of assembly, choosing a place close to a clinic where abortions are performed, understanding that expressing their demands in that place and the way they did it was the most appropriate way for the message they want to transmit, pray for life and offer their help, to reach its main recipients, all of which was communicated to the competent authority, the defendants conducting themselves exquisitely peacefully at all times."

CruxNow reports:

The judge emphasized that the defendants “always positioned themselves on the sidewalk opposite the clinic, at least 15 meters diagonally away from it,” a fact corroborated by photographic evidence, testimony from the accused, and from the officers who identified them....

Judge Román said the defendants “always maintained correct and polite behavior,” noted that they “did not interrupt the passage in the clinic,” and said, “their proclamations were never offensive, nor did they proselytize.”

The judge found no evidence that the pro-lifers engaged in any sort of intimidation, writing in the ruling, “None of the requirements or characteristics that qualify the situations of harassment punished in the penal code can be attributed to the conduct exhibited by the accused.”

Prosecutors, backed by the abortion business, claimed in November 2025 that the pro-lifers harassed abortion-minded women; they demanded a five-month prison sentence for each pro-lifer  with an alternate sentence of 75 days of community service.

LifeSiteNews noted:

Additionally, the abortion clinic demanded 20,000 euros ($23,250) in compensation, 10,000 for the clinic and another 10,000 for clinic manager Igor Elberdin.

“It was constant, all day long,” Elberdin alleged. “They show you signs, point at you, stare at you, pray aloud, and they even took photos of us. They use prayers to say awful things. The gatherings prevented the clinic from functioning properly.”

“The women need to be able to enter peacefully, and their aim was to intimidate them, especially since they come from difficult situations,” he continued.

However, the abortion activists were unable to provide any evidence to support their claims. Instead, police described the gatherings as “peaceful.”

In response, Bishop José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre  of Orihuela-Alicante remarked on X, “I suppose the freedom-killers are horrified that those who pray and offer their help to save human lives are not condemned… What a scandal!” 

The Bottom Line:

This case is a potent reinforcement of religious freedom and pro-life witness in Europe, dismissing pro-abortion attempts to deter pro-lifers even from participating in peaceful prayer gatherings outside abortion businesses.

The case could be appealed to the Provincial Court of Alava.