Authorities in England have filed fresh criminal charges against a pro-life advocate whom they arrested twice previously for praying silently outside an abortion clinic.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce had received a payout from police for unjust arrest, according to legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.
West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have criminally charged Vaughan-Spruce because she stood outside an abortion facility where “influence” is prohibited. She is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 29.
This is the first charge under the new national “buffer zones,” which came into force in October 2024 under Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023. The national law prohibits “influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate abortion services” within 150 meters of abortion facilities, but it does not mention silent prayer specifically. CPS guidance stipulates that silent prayer on its own does not meet the threshold of criminality unless it is accompanied by “overt” activity.
“Despite being fully vindicated multiple times after being wrongfully arrested for my thoughts, it’s unbelievable that I have yet again been charged for standing in that public area and holding pro-life beliefs,” Vaughan-Spruce said in a press statement from ADF International. “Silent prayer – or holding pro-life beliefs – cannot possibly be a crime. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought.”
Vaughan-Spruce had not yet received information about the criminal charge when the government issued a written answer on the matter, but she learned of the charge hours later in a letter from West Midlands Police, according to ADF International.
She has been under investigation since January for engaging in silent prayer on a public street near an abortion facility in Birmingham.
“The Crown Prosecution Service has issued proceedings under Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023, in relation to one case, since it was commenced on Oct. 31 2024,” said Solicitor General Ellie Reeves MP on behalf of Attorney General Richard Hermer. She gave the written response on Dec. 16 to a parliamentary question from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman MP about Vaughan-Spruce’s case.
ADF International stated that prior court cases about silent prayer took place in the context of local Public Spaces Protection Orders rather than through the new law.
West Midlands Police informed Vaughan-Spruce on March 18 that she was under investigation for praying silently near the facility on Jan. 27. She has been peacefully praying in the same public area on a regular basis for two decades.
With legal support from ADF International, she sent numerous requests for clarification in proceeding months as to the status of her case, pointing out that the legislation does not ban her mere presence or the holding of pro-life Christian beliefs.
“Buffer zones” are among the most concerning frontiers of censorship in the modern West, said Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF International.
“We all stand against harassment and abuse, but the ‘buffer zone’ law broadly bans ‘influence’ which is being interpreted by police officers to target innocent people who happen to stand in a certain place and believe a certain thing,” Igunnubole said. “We will continue to robustly challenge this unjust censorship, and support Isabel’s right to think and believe freely as is the right of every person in the U.K.”
As co-director of the pro-life organization UK March for Life, Vaughan-Spruce has twice successfully challenged previous arrests for praying near the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Robert Clinic in Kings Norton.
In November 2022, three police officers arrested her after she prayed silently near the facility. Police subsequently gave her compensation of £13,000 in August 2024 for her “unjust treatment and the breach of her human rights.”
Vaughan-Spruce filed the claim against West Midlands Police for two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments, assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person and for a breach of her human rights.
Authorities had enforced a local order on the area since September 2022 which prevented “any act of approval or disapproval” about abortion, including “prayer or counseling.”
Birmingham Magistrates Court acquitted Vaughan-Spruce in February 2023 of the charge of “protesting and engaging in an act [prayer] that is intimidating to service users” due to lack of evidence. The next month, six police officers arrested her again outside the clinic.
“You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offense,” one officer told her at the time.
Authorities later dropped those charges as well.
