Woman Arrested, Charged for Silent Prayer Near Abortion Clinic

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce (45), a charity volunteer from Geraldine Road, Malvern, was arrested and charged with four counts after a passerby reported to the police that they suspected she was praying silently near the British Pregnancy and Advisory Service (BPAS) Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham.

The city of Birmingham has implemented censorship zones around abortion facilities that criminalize any individual who appears to be “engaging in any act of approval or disapproval or attempted act of approval or disapproval” related to abortion, including through “verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.” The censorship zone is 150 meters, larger than a 115-meter football pitch.

Vaughan-Spruce said, “It’s abhorrently wrong that I was arrested, brought into cells, searched and humiliated by police simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. Censorship zone legislation purports to ban harassment, which is already illegal and obviously justifiable as nobody should be subject to harassment. But what I did was the furthest thing from harmful – I was exercising my freedom of thought, my freedom of religion, inside the privacy of my own mind. “

“Nobody should be criminalised for thinking, for praying, in a public space in the UK,” she went on to say. “I have devoted much of my life to supporting women in crisis pregnancies with everything that they need to make an empowered choice for motherhood.”

“I am also involved in supporting women who have had abortions and are struggling with the consequences of it. I’ve grown close to many of the women I’ve been able to support over the years, and it breaks my heart to know that so many more go through this every day.”

“My faith is a central part of who I am, so sometimes I’ll stand or walk near an abortion facility and pray about this issue. This is something I’ve done pretty much every week for around the last 20 years of my life. I pray for my friends who have experienced abortion, and for the women who are thinking about going through it themselves.”

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, added, “Isabel’s experience should be deeply concerning to all those who believe that our hard-fought fundamental rights are worth protecting. It is truly astonishing that the law has granted local authorities such wide and unaccountable discretion, that now even thoughts deemed “wrong” can lead to a humiliating arrest and a criminal charge.”

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