A former British Army member is facing charges for silently praying near an abortion clinic.
He warned that freedoms are endangered by the event.
“You might think this is a story from Orwell’s 1984 – but in fact this is happening in England in 2023,” Adam Smith-Connor said. “‘Thoughtcrimes’ shouldn’t be prosecuted in the UK.”
In a statement to MailOnline, Smith-Connor stated, “Nobody should be prosecuted for silent prayer,” he told MailOnline. “It is unfathomable that in an apparently free society, I am being criminalized on the basis of what I expressed silently, in the privacy of my own mind.”
“I served for 20 years in the army reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan, to protect the fundamental freedoms that this country is built upon. It troubles me greatly to see our freedoms eroded to the extent that thoughtcrimes are now being prosecuted in the UK.”
According to authorities, Smith-Connor violated “buffer zone” policies, which forbid the “expression of approval or disapproval of abortion, including through prayer.”
A similar event resulted in charges being dropped against a woman praying outside an abortion clinic.
Rather than choosing to drop the charges, however, the police let the case expire.
UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote in an open letter that “silent prayer, within itself, is not unlawful” and “holding lawful opinions, even if those opinions may offend others, is not a criminal offense.”
“This isn’t 1984, but 2023 – I should never have been arrested or investigated simply for the thoughts I held in my own mind,” Vaughan-Spruce said.
