A police officer has interrogated a woman outside an abortion clinic for silent prayer, saying, “Are you praying for the lives of unborn children?”
Footage obtained by the Christian legal advocacy group, ADF has shown Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, being interrogated by a woman Police Community Support Officer employed by West Midlands police for silently praying outside a Birmingham abortion clinic within its so-called buffer zone.
The PCSO read out a series of questions to Miss Vaughan-Spruce including, “Are you a member of a pro life or pro choice group? Are you part of an organised protest? Are you here to pray for the lives of unborn children? Can your action be carried out elsewhere?”
She was invited to move outside the exclusion zone and told that her action constituted a breach of a Public Space Protection Order and that she would be issued with a fixed penalty notice for being in breach of the Order and the Anti Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Miss Vaughan Spruce denied that she was protesting.
She later issued a statement, saying: “The UK Government urgently needs to clarify that silent thoughts can never be illegal – even if those thoughts are in disagreement with the views of the State.
“This is the third time I have been treated like a criminal for peacefully, silently, and imperceptibly praying for women who are likely facing one of the worst days of their lives” .
Birmingham Council subsequently said that they would not press for payment of the fine but said they may do so in the future.
The police interrogation on 18th October was the third time that Miss Vaughan Spruce has been questioned by police for praying silently while standing still inside the buffer zone area around an abortion clinic.
In March, she was arrested and brought before Birmingham Magistrates Court for silent prayer and acquitted.
Some weeks later she was arrested again for the same offence.
Last month the authorities finished their investigation into her conduct without bringing a charge.
Another two people were treated similarly by police in Birmingham.
On October 13 Patrick Parkes was interrogated by officers about his private prayers and was later warned that he would be fined if he repeated his actions.
Another person received the same warning for recording the officer’s exchanges with Parkes.
Parliament voted to establish buffer zones of 150 metres around abortion clinics in an amendment to the Public Order Act in March this year initiated by Stella Creasy MP.
It specified that “a person who is within a buffer zone and who interferes with any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services in that buffer zone is guilty of an offence.”
Interfering, in this context, includes seeking to influence or “persistently, continuously or repeatedly” occupying the buffer zone.
The offence is punishable in the first instance by a fine; for subsequent offences it may be punishable by imprisonment of up to two years or a fine, or both.
The interrogation of Miss Vaughan Spruce takes place after the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said on the 3rd of September that silent prayer outside an abortion clinic was not in itself an offence and that she had written to police authorities to make that clear.
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