by WorldTribune Staff, August 22, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
The co-director of March for Life UK, who has been arrested twice for praying silently outside a closed abortion clinic, has reached a financial settlement in a lawsuit filed against police in Birmingham, England.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce will receive $16,900. She filed a claim against the West Midlands Police for false imprisonment, assault and battery, and breaches of her human rights, according to the UK’s division of Alliance Defending Freedom.
“There is no place for Orwell’s Thought Police in 21st century Britain, and thanks to legal support I received from ADF UK, I’m delighted that the settlement that I have received today acknowledges that,” Vaughan-Spruce said in a press release after Monday’s settlement. “Yet despite this victory, I am deeply concerned that this violation could be repeated at the hands of other police forces.”
In March 2023, Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for the second time for standing and praying outside Birmingham’s Robert Clinic in an alleged violation of a local ordinance against expressions of “disapproval with respect to issues related to abortion services” near such medical centers.
The arrest came less than a month after Vaughan-Spruce was acquitted of all charges in Birmingham Magistrates’ Court following her December 2022 arrest for the same infraction.
Related: British woman’s arrest while praying outside abortion clinic called ‘wake-up call’, December 28, 2022
Guidance issued last year by the UK’s Conservative Party government stated: “Silent prayer, being the engagement of the mind and thought in prayer toward God, is protected as an absolute right under the Human Rights Act 1998 and should not, on its own, be considered to be an offense under any circumstances.”
But the British Home Office under the new leftist government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to implement the Public Order Act which restricts activity within 150 meters of abortion facilities, including all forms of influencing.
The UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) called the Public Order Act “profoundly worrying” and “as usual, pro-life men and women are on the frontline of the attack on free speech.”
Urgent: Support Free Press Foundation
“If the Home Office ignores human rights so blatantly, a dangerous precedent will be set, making thoughtcrime a horrifying reality in the UK,” said an SPUC spokesperson in an Aug. 16 statement.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the nation’s leading abortion provider, said buffer zones are needed to protect medical professionals and clients from harassment and breaches of privacy, while pro-life groups argued that the measure will institute “thought crimes.”
Britain has a high abortion rate compared with other Western nations. One in 3 U.K. women will have an abortion by age 45, according to BPAS.
Two other British pro-life advocates — military veteran Adam Smith-Connor and retired scientist Livia Tossici-Bolt — are scheduled to face trial for holding up signs outside an abortion clinic saying “here to talk, if you want.”
Michael Farmer, a Conservative Party member and life peer of the House of Lords, said Vaughan-Spruce’s experience was “a travesty of justice, and it is right that West Midlands Police make some compensation for the hardship she has endured.”
“But the wider issue remains that we are living through an undemocratic clampdown on Christian speech, expression and thought in the UK, which is set to intensify when the government rolls out buffer zones nationwide,” Farmer said.
British pro-lifer arrested twice for praying silently wins claim against ‘Orwell’s Thought Police’ added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →