Posted on 12/23/2025 10:12:40 AM PST by marshmallow
The prosecution of a British pro-life advocate for praying violates ‘fundamental freedoms’ and ‘the shared values that ought to underpin US-UK relations,’ a State Department official said.
(LifeSiteNews) — The U.K.’s prosecuting of a British pro-life activist for standing silently within an abortion center’s buffer zone is not only “concerning” as it violates “common sense” but is an “unwelcome departure” from shared transatlantic values, said a Trump administration official.
According to a Saturday report in The Telegraph, the spokesman for the U.S. State Department was addressing the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic pro-life activist who was charged last Wednesday for standing and silently praying on the street outside an abortion facility in Birmingham.
Her case marks the first time a person has been accused of violating the country’s new abortion “buffer zone” law, which went into effect in October 2024 under Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023. The law prohibits “influencing” anyone’s decision to access, commit, or facilitate abortion “services” within 150 meters of an abortion center.
According to ADF International, the new law “does not mention silent prayer specifically” and Crown Prosecution Service guidance on the law “stipulates that silent prayer on its own is not enough to meet the threshold of criminality unless it is accompanied by ‘overt’ activity, yet Vaughan-Spruce is being prosecuted for this silent internal activity nonetheless. Such mere thought, according to the U.S. official, “should not constitute harm.”
“The decision to prosecute a woman engaged in silent prayer is not only concerning in terms of its impact on respect for the fundamental freedoms of expression and religion or belief, but is also an unwelcome departure from the shared values that ought to underpin US-UK relations,” the State Department spokesman told The Telegraph.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
Just sanction the prosecutor and judge to the fullest degree. It literally destroys much of their financial lives, and they will likely back down. I don’t know why Trump doesn’t use this more. He did it to the ICC rapist judge and the Arab Nazi U.N. “rapporteur on Palestine” and can’t use hardly any financial service or even Microsoft software.
Try buying a flight to Caracas from the USA.
It’s time for sanctions, Congress & Mr. President.
I wonder if Brit TV is even allowed to show such an obvious contrast as that to it’s own citizenry?
I imagine not...
So over a football field and a half. Are you allowed to pray if you live inside this "zone"?
Arrested. For silent prayer. Not even in the worst day in the Soviet Union would this happen.
Lyndsey Graham is still trying to convince Trump to ignore the Brits and focus on Russia.
Arrested.
For Thoughtcrime?
Sanction the whole labour party.
The EU, as Viktor Orban has said, is the bad parody of the old Soviet Union and there is no scenario where we should be required to defend left-wing tyrannical states like Britain, France and Germany.
The UK is lost! They prosecute Christians for a silent prayer while allowing Satan’s muslims to openly pray on prayer rugs anywhere they wish.
The British government is a Monty Python Twit Skit.
She is being WRONGFULLY prosecuted by pro-abortion activists, and the government (and judiciary, AND the police chiefs) are all agreed that this level of activism by cops is being taken way too far.
There’s a national “buffer zone” law passed by the UK government in 2023 (ie not by the current government) - Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023. The purpose of it was to reduce breaches of the peace inside a buffer zone of 150m (England and Wales) or 200m (in Scotland) inside. The police have far better things to do than deal with petty verbal bust-ups between pro-abortion and pro-life groups.
Crucially, the guidelines from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are explicit that silent prayer inside the buffer zone is NOT a criminal matter; the purpose is only to prevent “overt” activity that can become criminal - like physical assaults.
The new rules make it even less likely that the prosecution will succeed, especially as the same police force has already been penalised for doing it - begging the question why it is even being taken to the magistrate’s court.
And the reason for that is, nothing stops people making frivolous complaints to the police and forcing the “Home Office Counting Rules” to record it.
This prosecution is going to a magistrate’s court because certain activist cops in West Midlands Police refuse to treat it as a “no crime” (which it is), and magistrates tend to be very critical of abuses of the judicial process.
The last time it happened (with this woman, in February 2023), the magistrate acquitted her of all charges after prosecutors failed to present adequate evidence AND the police ended up with a multi-thousand-pound bill plus they had to pay her compensation and issue a formal apology.
So I think this is all a storm in a teacup and the most likely outcome is the police get roasted by the magistrate.
The only thing that can conceivably result in the woman being prosecuted is if the police can prove her prayer/protest was intended to lead to a serious breach of the peace - which is almost impossible to do. The only thing that might make that more likely is that she is a director of a campaign group, and if the police can prove she’d advertised the “silent prayer” in order to whip up support AND whip up opposition... But even then, it’s a very tenuous argument.
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