A retired pastor is being prosecuted for an alleged breach of an abortion clinic buffer zone in Northern Ireland.
Pastor Clive Johnston, former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, was cautioned after holding an open-air service on John 3:16 on the perimeters of an abortion clinic buffer zone near Causeway Hospital, in Coleraine, on 7 July last 12 months.
The 76 12 months old was later informed that he was being charged with two counts of breaking the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act.
He is due before court in Coleraine on Friday 21 March charged with allegedly in search of to “influence” people accessing abortion services on the hospital and for failing to go away the world immediately after being asked to achieve this by police.
Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of The Christian Institute, which is defending Mr Johnston, called the prosecution “an outrageous restriction on freedom of faith and freedom of speech”.
He said that the buffer zone had effectively been used “to outlaw the Gospel”, and that the police and Public Prosecution Service were “over-stepping the mark”.
“Should a law designed to stop abortion protests be used to criminalise gospel preaching?” said Mr Calvert.
“We have amazing gospel freedom on this country and we encourage Christians to make use of those freedoms in order that more people will hear concerning the love of God.”
He continued, “It’s just not reasonable or rational to suggest that preaching the Gospel, with no reference to abortion, is a protest against abortion.
“For the record, this was an open-air service held on a Sunday, with a few dozen people in attendance, on a patch of grass, separated from Causeway Hospital by a highway. There was a picket cross, and Clive leading the singing of well-known hymns on a ukulele.
“Yet the police summons says he ‘conducted a protest’ to attempt to ‘influence’ patients or staff attending the abortion clinic. This is religiously illiterate.”
Mr Johnston is being prosecuted despite not mentioning abortion in his sermon, nor displaying any placards referencing abortion.
If convicted, the grandfather of seven could possibly be fined 1000’s of kilos.
The Christian Institute called the fees “ridiculous” and said they must be dropped.
“Speech that has nothing to do with abortion mustn’t be criminalised as whether it is an anti-abortion protest. This is fundamentally unjust,” said Mr Calvert.
“If prosecutors achieve getting a conviction against Clive for preaching about God’s love, what’s going to that mean for other types of non-abortion-related speech in these zones?
“Could people outside a hospital protesting health service cutbacks or junior doctors’ pay be prosecuted?
“The Christian Institute is backing this case because there is an important principle at stake. If the Gospel may be banned on this public place, where else can it’s banned? The authorities don’t appear to have thought through the human rights implications of their decision to prosecute.”
