Police pay pro-life activist nearly $17K over wrongful arrest for silent prayer
A pro-life activist arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic has been awarded a financial settlement from police. Yet concerns remain about the rights of abortion opponents who want to silently protest the killing of pre-born babies in the United Kingdom.
The law firm ADF UK announced Monday that Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a pro-life activist who was arrested multiple times for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in England, had received a settlement of £13,000 ($16,893) from West Midlands Police as part of what the religious freedom legal nonprofit characterized as an “acknowledgment of her unjust treatment.”
“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,” said Vaughan-Spruce. “Yet despite this victory, I am deeply concerned that this violation could be repeated at the hands of other police forces.”
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According to Vaughan-Spruce, “Silent prayer is not a crime. Nobody should be arrested merely for the thoughts they have in their heads — yet this happened to me twice at the hands of the West Midlands Police, who explicitly told me that ‘prayer is an offense.’”
Vaughan-Spruce was first arrested in December 2022 for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham for allegedly violating a Public Space Protection Order that prohibits people from “protesting, namely engaging in any act of approval or disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means” within a certain distance of an abortion clinic. A police officer asked her why she was standing outside the facility and if she was praying.
“I might be praying in my head, not out loud,” she responded. Police took Vaughan-Spruce into custody after she declined to go to the police station voluntarily. While the charges were dropped, Vaughan-Spruce was arrested again outside the same clinic three months later.
When officers confronted Vaughan-Spruce outside the abortion clinic in March 2023, the pro-life activist defended her presence there. “I’m not protesting, I’m not engaging in any of the activities prohibited,” she insisted.
Though officers claimed her prayer was an “offense,” she stressed that she was merely engaging in “silent prayer.”
“You’re still engaging in prayer. It’s an offense,” one of the officers replied. The charges in connection to these two arrests were dropped last September.
In January, ADF UK released video footage documenting a third encounter between Vaughan-Spruce and police officers across the street from the abortion clinic. An officer asked her if she was “protesting” and she answered “no.”
In response to an order that she should carry out her actions “elsewhere,” Vaughan-Spruce maintained that she was “not doing any actions” but “simply thinking silently in my head.” The officer continued to press her about the reason for her presence outside the abortion facility, which prompted her to acknowledge that she was “praying for those who have been hurt by abortion.”
Even though Vaughan-Spruce detailed how she had “been arrested twice,” “gone to court and been acquitted,” and “received an email from the police telling me I’m allowed to be in this area,” the officer claimed that she was still “breaching the Public Space Protection Order” and ordered her to move “outside the exclusion zone.” Vaughan-Spruce, however, maintained that she was within her rights to remain standing in silence. The video then shows the officer issuing her a “fixed penalty notice.”
Although ADF UK Senior Legal Counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole said he was “delighted that West Midlands Police have acknowledged wrongdoing and injustice in the treatment of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce,” he and her both expressed concern about the prospect of other pro-life activists facing the same treatment in the future due to the left-wing Labour Party recently taking power in Britain.
ADF UK noted that the Labour government is set to roll out the Public Order Act, which bans all forms of “influencing” within 150 meters of an abortion clinic. “A ‘buffer zone’ policy is set to be rolled out [by] the government imminently — the language of which is inherently unclear, and will likely lead to further violations against the freedom to pray, peacefully converse or offer help near abortion facilities,” Vaughan-Spruce warned.
Iggunubole added: “The fact that the government is reportedly set to name ‘silent prayer’ as a criminal offense, brazenly contrary to their commitment to international human rights law, exposes the crisis of free speech and thought in the UK today. Law enforcers are dutybound to vigilantly protect, not prosecute, the peaceful exercise of fundamental rights.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
