Despite Settlement, Silent Prayer near Abortion Facilities May Still Be Banned in U.K.

A British pro-life advocate who was arrested on two separate occasions for silently praying near a U.K. abortion facility has been awarded £13,000 (about $16,800) for unjust treatment and violation of her human rights. Nevertheless, legislation being proposed in the U.K. Parliament may further clamp down on silent prayer near abortion facilities.

In November 2022, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested while silently and peacefully praying near an abortion facility in Birmingham, which police claimed was within a “buffer zone” known as a public space protection order (PSPO), which prohibits “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users.” In a video of the arrest, which has since been viewed millions of times, a police officer asks her, “Is you standing here part of a protest?” “No, I’m not protesting,” Vaughan-Spruce responds. “Are you praying?” the officer prods further. “I might be praying in my head,” she answers. The police then arrest her after searching her, including her hair.

Four months later, after having been acquitted of any wrongdoing in February 2023, Vaughan-Spruce was arrested a second time for praying near the abortion facility. But the charges were dropped “following an intervention from then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman.” Vaughan-Spruce later filed a claim against the West Midlands Police for “two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments; assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person; and for a breach of her human rights both in respect to the arrests and to the onerous bail conditions imposed on her.”

Despite Vaughan-Spruce’s legal victory and monetary award, the criminalization of prayer within a buffer zone around abortion facilities in the U.K. may be forthcoming. Last week, The Telegraph reported that the U.K.’s Home Office is currently considering the enforcement of a bill passed by Parliament that would “ban protests, including silent prayer, within a buffer zone of 150 metres of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services.” However, draft guidance on enforcing the legislation includes a provision allowing “silent prayer,” which it acknowledges is “an absolute right under the Human Rights Act 1998.”

But pro-abortion lawmakers such as Dame Diana Johnson are challenging the guidance, remarking, “We specifically voted against proposals to allow silent prayer and consensual communication in safe access zones.” In addition, numerous pro-abortion organizations in the U.K. have launched campaigns against the draft guidance, with activists claiming that allowing silent prayer would “create major loopholes” that will allow pro-life advocates to “influence women’s reproductive choices.”

Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, expressed encouragement from the settlement in Vaughan-Spruce’s favor. “This settlement is a victory for free speech and basic human rights in England,” she told The Washington Stand. “Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested twice under a totally unjust local restriction that specifically prohibited prayer and other basic rights in a large radius around an abortion facility. It’s good to see the police department offer a settlement in acknowledgement of her unjust treatment.”

“However,” she noted, “the unjust ‘buffer zone’ law that led to the treatment is still in effect and there are more of those local restrictions around the country. Furthermore, U.K. officials are considering instituting a nationwide ‘buffer zone’ around all abortion facilities. This would be a travesty. No ‘zone’ should exist that prohibits fundamental human rights like freedom of speech and religion. This is a backward policy that U.K. leaders should reject and overturn at all levels of government.”

Mary Szoch, FRC’s director of the Center for Human Dignity, further reflected on the power of prayer. “It’s truly unbelievable that a woman could be arrested — not once, but twice — for praying silently in her head outside an abortion facility,” she told TWS. “Those pushing the culture of death clearly recognize the power prayer has to save lives, but I wonder if those of us in the pro-life movement have the same recognition of that power. If pro-abortionists recognize that prayer is so powerful that they are now working to ban it outside abortion clinics and, in this case, have arrested people for it — then we in the pro-life movement should realize that we need to be praying for unborn children and their mothers and fathers every single day.” 

“Clearly, prayer — and especially the witness of prayer outside an abortion facility — changes hearts and saves lives,” Szoch concluded. “I am grateful for Isabel Vaughan-Spruce. All of us should learn from her example.”