MSP Gillian Mackay, the author of the Scottish buffer zones law, has now admitted that it might be illegal to pray at home “depending on who passes the window”.
Speaking on a BBC Scotland podcast, Mackey said that “performative” prayer inside a home within a buffer zone might break the law “depending on who passes the window”.
Buffer zones in Scotland came into force last September, imposing a 200m area around abortion facilities in which all pro-life activity, including silent prayer, is outlawed.
On 19 February, a 74-year-old grandmother became the first person to be arrested and charged for breaching a Scottish buffer zone. She was standing outside a Glasgow hospital and holding a sign that read, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
A few days before, US Vice-President JD Vance condemned Mackey’s buffer zones law and a government letter to residents within buffer zones that read:
“[Pro-life] activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a Zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the Zone and are done intentionally or recklessly.”
Delivering his speech to the Munich Security Conference, Vance said that even prayer was an offence inside the home in such circumstances, a claim that Mackay slammed as “shameless misinformation”.
At Munich, Vance cited UK buffer zones as an example of how, “in Britain, and across Europe, free speech I fear is in retreat”.
Vance also mentioned the case of Adam Smith-Connor, a British veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who was found guilty of praying silently for his dead son near an abortion facility in Bournemouth.
“I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person”, Vance continued. “But no… The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Smith-Connor, who was found guilty last year and fined £9,000, will appeal his conviction in July. His case is being supported by ADF UK.
Other Christians have been arrested for praying silently inside buffer zones in England and Wales, including Isabel Vaughan-Spruce who received an apology from the police after two “wrongful” arrests outside an abortion facility in Birmingham.
However, this month it emerged that Vaughan-Spruce was targeted again by police, this time because of her “mere presence” inside a buffer zone.
Buffer zones of 150m came into effect across England and Wales last year. Subsequent Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance states that silent prayer is “not necessarily” criminal, but actions inside buffer zones that “influence” a woman in the context of abortion are.
A similar law is also in force in Northern Ireland, where one woman, Claire Brennan, was recently prosecuted for kneeling in prayer inside a buffer zone.
