MPs reject attempts to allow silent prayer outside abortion clinics after Catholic woman arrested for second time
9 March 2023, 07:07 | Updated: 9 March 2023, 07:15
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for “silently praying” in a buffer zone surrounding clinic
MPs have rejected attempts to allow "silent prayer" outside abortion clinics in England and Wales, amid warnings new buffer zone measures risk making "thoughtcrime" a reality.
The decision came just days after police told a Catholic woman that 'praying is an offence' as she was arrested a second time outside an abortion clinic just weeks after being acquitted for the same offence.
Video shared online shows Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of anti-abortion group March for Life UK, being arrested outside the BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham.
Officers ask Ms Vaughan-Spruce to "step outside the exclusion zone" that exists around the clinic. However, she tells officers that she is "not protesting" and "not engaging in any of the activities prohibited."
Police respond: "But you've said you're engaging in prayer, which is the offence," to which she replies: "Silent prayer."
The officer then says, "No, but you were still engaging in prayer. It is an offence," to which Ms Vaughan-Spruce answered: "I disagree." She was then arrested by six officers.
West Midlands police said: “The woman was advised to leave the area and refused, before being issued with a fixed penalty notice. When she refused to leave again, she was arrested. She has now been bailed while statements are taken from residents and people working in the area.”
Vaughan-Spruce was arrested outside the same clinic in December for violating the PSPO, but charges were dropped.
The Public Order Bill contains powers to make it an offence to interfere with, intimidate or harass women accessing, or people providing, abortion services.
Protesters found guilty of breaching the "safe access zone", which would extend 150 metres from clinics, could be fined.
But a group of Tory and DUP MPs tabled an amendment aimed at ensuring no offence is committed if a person is "engaged in consensual communication or in silent prayer" outside the clinics or hospitals offering abortion services.
In a free vote, the proposal was rejected by 116 votes to 299, majority 183.
The division list showed Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Attorney General Victoria Prentis were among the 109 Conservative MPs, two of whom were tellers, who supported the amendment while 109 Tory MPs voted against.
Labour MP Stella Creasy (Walthamstow), writing on Twitter, said buffer zones had been "protected from the sabotage amendment" and it would enable women to "access an abortion in peace".
Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), added on Twitter: "Anti-choice activists who stand outside our clinics talk about a lifetime of abortion regret.
"Women generally don't regret abortions, but what stays with them - even decades on - is the invasion of their privacy by these people when they sought our help."
Alithea William, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's (SPUC) public policy manager, said in a statement: "It is very disappointing that MPs have rejected even this modest amendment, which was trying to ensure that thoughtcrime was not enshrined in UK law."
