A retired medical scientist is standing trial this week for offering assistance to women inside an abortion clinic buffer zone.
Livia Tossici-Bolt, 63, was approached by local officials in Bournemouth as she held up an indication saying “Here to speak. If you would like”.
The officials accused her of breaching the terms of the abortion clinic buffer zone, which state that it will not be permitted to “express approval or disapproval of abortion”.
Tossici-Bolt was ordered to pay a Fixed Penalty Notice, which she refused to do on the grounds that she had not expressed any views in any respect on abortion but had merely made herself available for conversation.
Tossici-Bolt also said that Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, permitted her to supply consensual conversations.
He said, “There’s nothing improper with two adults engaging in a consensual conversation on the road. I shouldn’t be treated like a criminal only for this.”
The retired scientist also claimed that a lot of people had approached her to have conversations about life basically.
The Alliance Defending Freedom UK is supporting her legal case.
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF International, said: “Under far-reaching and vaguely-written rules, we now have seen volunteers like Livia criminalised simply for offering to interact in consensual conversation; and others dragged through courts for praying, even silently, of their minds.
The principle of freedom of thought and speech should be defended each inside and outdoors ‘buffer zones’.
“It’s unthinkable that as real crime is mounting, policing time and resources are being expended on peaceful individuals like Livia who simply, and peacefully, offer to talk. What form of society does that?”
The issue of abortion clinic buffer zones recently hit the headlines after criticism by US Vice President JD Vance, who said they were an infringement on free speech. He referred specifically to the case of residents in Scotland who were warned that personal prayer in homes falling inside buffer zones may very well be a breach of the law.
The MSP behind the Scottish version of the law, Gillian Mackay, claimed this was “misinformation” before admitting that there are the truth is circumstances when prayer in a single’s home could fall foul of the law.
Plenty of people have been charged with apparently breaching abortion clinic buffer zones under dubious circumstances. Adam Smith-Connor was charged for praying inside a buffer zone, while last week in Scotland Rose Doherty was arrested for holding up an indication that read “Coercion is against the law, here to speak, in case you want”.
