Pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce is to look in court on Thursday after being charged with breaching controversial abortion buffer zone laws. Vaughan-Spruce was charged in December. She had been silently standing and praying within the zone.
Under the law, it’s forbidden to harass, intimidate and even influence an individual in search of to offer or seek an abortion.
Critics of the law have said it stifles freedom of speech. Indeed, within the two most high-profile cases, those charged didn’t even speak to anyone within the zone. While Vaughan-Spruce merely prayed silently in her head, in a separate case, Scottish grandmother Rose Docherty was charged for standing and holding an indication which said “Coercion is against the law, here to speak, only in the event you want”.
The issue has drawn the eye of the US State Department which said it was “monitoring” the “concerning” case against Vaughan-Spruce. US Vice President JD Vance, speaking on the March for Life rally in Washington DC last weekend, appeared to check with Vaughan-Spruce when he said, “We speak up when other nations throw pro-life and pro-family advocates in prison for silent prayer, which we’ve seen way an excessive amount of. But it’s got to stop.”
Vaughan-Spruce is receiving legal support from ADF International, which said she’s going to plea “not guilty” at her hearing.
ADF notes that Vaughan-Spruce is the primary person to be charged under Section 9 of the Public Order Act, which only got here into force in October 20224. Crown Prosecution guidance says that silent prayer doesn’t constitute criminal behaviour unless it’s accompanied by “overt” behaviour, even though it advised a case-by-case approach.
Vaughan-Spruce has previously been charged – and cleared – of breaching similar laws in 2023, nevertheless these were local authority Public Spaces Protection Orders, quite than probably the most recent Westminster laws.
Speaking ahead of the hearing, Vaughan-Spruce said, “Despite being fully vindicated multiple times after being wrongfully arrested for my thoughts, it’s unbelievable that I even have yet again been charged for standing in that public area and holding pro-life beliefs. Silent prayer – or holding pro-life beliefs – cannot possibly be against the law. Everyone has the correct to freedom of thought.”
On X, she also thanked JD Vance for his support, saying, “Prayer isn’t against the law. Standing isn’t against the law. Silence isn’t against the law.”
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF International, commented, “’Buffer zones’ are amongst probably the most concerning frontiers of censorship in the trendy West.
“We all stand against harassment and abuse, however the ‘buffer zone’ law broadly bans ‘influence’ which is being interpreted by law enforcement officials to focus on innocent individuals who occur to face in a certain place and consider a certain thing.
“We will proceed to robustly challenge this unjust censorship, and support Isabel’s right to think and consider freely as is the correct of all and sundry within the UK.”
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