Smith-Connor was confronted by a council officer who saw him with his head bowed and hands clasped near an abortion facility protected by a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), also known as a “buffer zone”.
When asked what he was doing, Smith-Connor replied: “I’m praying for my son who is deceased.”
The officer went on to accuse him of engaging in “prayer as disapproval”, to which he replied: “I’m praying in my mind and not approaching anyone. I’m entitled to pray silently for my dead son in a free country.”
Smith-Connor was initially fined £100, which he refused to pay as he denied the offence, and his trial began this week.
Smith-Connor explained to the court that 24 years ago his son was aborted in Leeds. While it wasn’t “practical” to go to the specific location in Leeds, it was still “important for me to go near that kind of location”.
“Prayer is important, and prayer shouldn’t be threatened in this great land, so I chose to go and practise this right”, he continued. “I think in a free nation you can do that, and prayer should not be criminalised.
“I and fellow servicemen made an oath to the King and country that our freedoms are upheld and defended. I am a law-abiding citizen.”
Buffer Zones Deny Women A True Choice
This week, the Government announced that buffer zones in England and Wales will be enforced from 31 October 2024 under Section 9 of the Public Order Act. MPs approved the measure in 2023, despite a Home Office review concluding in 2018 that “aggressive activities” by pro-lifer people around abortion facilities were “not the norm”.
A comes into effect on 24 September comes into effect in Scotland on 24 September.
In August, noted pro-life campaigner Isabel Vaughan-Spruce received a £13k payout and an apology from the police who both sides of the Atlantic her for praying silently outside an abortion facility in Birmingham.
While SPUC does not organise or participate in pro-life vigils outside abortion facilities, it defends the right of citizens to peacefully gather, pray and offer help and advice to women in crisis pregnancies.
representing SPUC, SPUC’s Margaret Akers explained to a Holyrood committee hearing into buffer zones:
“A great number of the women I work with do not feel that they were properly counselled at a clinical level ahead of their abortion, and do not feel they were given all of the information in order to make an informed choice.”
“A Shocking Precedent”
Daniel Frampton, SPUC’s Editorial Officer, said: “Adam is a grieving father who mourns the loss of his son Jacob, whose life was sadly lost to abortion. Though Adam has not harmed anyone, this honourable veteran who served his country is now on trial for thoughtcrime, a shocking precedent in a nation like England.
“This outrageous trial shows how far abortion ideologues are prepared to go to enforce their nasty, life-denying worldview. Their next victim is free speech and religious freedom. Rather than surrendering hard-won rights, politicians should be defending freedom rather than destroying it.
“Ultimately, abortion ideology has no empathy for mothers – or fathers like Adam – which is hardly surprising, since its callous attitude to unborn babies, who are aborted in the hundreds of thousands every year in the UK, is monstrously clear.
“Citizens must be made aware of how the law has been hijacked to criminalise the silent thoughts of ordinary people just like them. If this is allowed to continue, other thoughts may be deemed ‘criminal’ in the future as well.”
