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Trump Admin Condemns UK Prosecution of Pro-Lifer for Silent Prayer, Says It’s ‘Monitoring’ the Case
LifeSite News ^ | 12/22/25 | Patrick Delaney

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; dissent; europe; expelukfromnato; fourfreedoms; freespeech; godless; prolife; tyranny; ukwarcrimes; unitedknazis

1 posted on 12/23/2025 10:12:40 AM PST by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

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.


2 posted on 12/23/2025 10:20:51 AM PST by montag813
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To: marshmallow

Try buying a flight to Caracas from the USA.

It’s time for sanctions, Congress & Mr. President.


3 posted on 12/23/2025 10:36:00 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: marshmallow; Morgana; ViLaLuz
[The prosecution of a British pro-life advocate for praying]

They have American Democrats in Great Britain these days...?

From recent history:



4 posted on 12/23/2025 10:45:18 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

I wonder if Brit TV is even allowed to show such an obvious contrast as that to it’s own citizenry?


5 posted on 12/23/2025 10:51:27 AM PST by Kudsman (Illusions for everybody. How about a nice rousing game of Apathy and Detachment? )
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To: Kudsman

I imagine not...


6 posted on 12/23/2025 11:07:43 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: marshmallow
...within 150 meters of an abortion center.

So over a football field and a half. Are you allowed to pray if you live inside this "zone"?

7 posted on 12/23/2025 11:38:00 AM PST by Rinnwald
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To: montag813

Arrested. For silent prayer. Not even in the worst day in the Soviet Union would this happen.


8 posted on 12/23/2025 11:39:48 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: marshmallow

Lyndsey Graham is still trying to convince Trump to ignore the Brits and focus on Russia.


9 posted on 12/23/2025 11:50:43 AM PST by Socon-Econ (adi)
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To: gibsonguy
Arrested. For silent prayer. Not even in the worst day in the Soviet Union would this happen.

Arrested.

For Thoughtcrime?

10 posted on 12/23/2025 12:10:01 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never...in nothing, great or small...Winston ChurchIill)
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To: montag813

Sanction the whole labour party.


11 posted on 12/23/2025 12:35:01 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (Wake up, smell the cat food in your bank account. )
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To: marshmallow
Either this nonsense stops or Trump should pull us out of NATO.

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.

12 posted on 12/23/2025 1:07:13 PM PST by Kazan
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To: marshmallow

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.


13 posted on 12/23/2025 1:53:45 PM PST by TonyM (Score Event)
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To: marshmallow

The British government is a Monty Python Twit Skit.


14 posted on 12/23/2025 6:32:06 PM PST by waterhill (This world is not my home, I'm just passin' through, you gotta come up to The House.)
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To: marshmallow

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.


15 posted on 12/24/2025 7:02:09 AM PST by MalPearce ("You see, but you do not observe" - Holmes to Watson, A Scandal in Bohemia)
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