‘Buffer zone’ law banning anti-abortion protests goes into effect in England and Wales

“This isn’t 1984, but 2023 —I should never have been arrested or investigated simply for the thoughts I held in my own mind,” Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested for praying outside of an abortion clinic, said. / Credit: ADF UK

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 31, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

A national “buffer zone” law went into effect across England and Wales on Thursday, Oct. 31, barring protests outside abortion facilities.

On the day the new law was rolled out, the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) released new guidelines that clarify that silent prayer in an abortion buffer zone is “not necessarily” a crime, according to a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK.

The implementation of the national buffer zone law comes over a year after Parliament passed the Public Order Act 2023. The new law makes “interference with any person’s decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services” within 150 meters (almost 500 feet) of an abortion facility a criminal offense.

The law also makes illegal any action that “causes harassment or distress to someone using or working at these premises.”

Previously, buffer zones had only been enforced in five councils across the United Kingdom. Punishment for violating the Public Order Act is up to six months in prison and unlimited fines.

The act has been the subject of controversy and debate in parliamentary chambers for months leading up to its implementation due to questions surrounding what could be construed as harassment after several pro-life protesters faced prosecution for silent prayer outside of abortion clinics.

Before the CPS’ clarification, ADF UK had launched a petition to U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer last week, which garnered nearly 60,000 signatures, asking him to refrain from passing the law, which the petition asserted had been responsible for “the creation of thought crime,” citing the arrests of individuals who had been silently praying outside abortion clinics.

Pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of March for Life UK, called the decision to pass the law a “national disgrace.”

Similarly, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) UK described the occasion of the law’s passing as “a day of shame for England and Wales” and “a chilling moment in Britain’s history.”

Army veteran and pro-life demonstrator Adam Smith-Connor, who was recently convicted of silently praying, also took to social media in light of the new law’s implementation with a video statement.

“As buffer zones are rolled out across the nation, and CPS guidance concedes that silent prayer is ‘not necessarily’ a criminal offense, I’m pleased to confirm I’m appealing against my conviction,” he said in a post on X.

Smith-Connor was convicted Oct. 16 after the Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council charged him with praying in an abortion clinic buffer zone.