Suella Braverman has told police around the country that “silent prayer, within itself, is not unlawful”, including outside abortion facilities. Her clarification follows the arrests of peaceful pro-life Christians.
“Holding lawful opinions, even if those opinions may offend others, is not a criminal offence”, Braverman continued in a written clarification of the existing law.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a pro-life Catholic arrested twice for silently praying outside a BPAS abortion facility in Birmingham, said she “is delighted to see the Home Secretary clarify to police that it is not a crime to pray inside your own mind.
“This is a basic tenet of a free democracy – yet I have been arrested twice for doing no more than that…
“It is not for the Government to determine my beliefs on abortion, my beliefs that women deserve better support, nor police the faith that I hold in my own mind.”
A British Army veteran, Adam Smith-Connor, will go on trial in November after he prayed silently for his dead son outside an abortion facility in Bournemouth.
“I simply stood silently”, Mr Smith-Connor said. “I am being tried for the prayerful thoughts I held in my head… for a thought crime.”
Vaughan-Spruce has been acquitted once but awaits a second trial.
SPUC has produced a free clicking here that provides an overview of the legal situation regarding the ban on pro-life activities near abortion facilities.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “While we welcome the Home Secretary’s clarification, more must be done to protect peaceful citizens from authorities such as West Midlands Police and Bournemouth City Council that abuse their power to enforce an undemocratic and unlawful pro-abortion agenda.
“Councils and even the police have shown they have no respect for free speech or the right to religious expression. Unless this censorious instinct is rejected entirely, pro-lifers will continue to be persecuted. This is an outrage in the supposedly free United Kingdom.”
