UK Government Set to Ban Silent Prayer Outside Abortion Clinics
As the crackdown on free speech accelerates, the UK government is set to ban people silently praying in their heads outside abortion clinics. | MPs voted for legislation last year that would ban silent prayer within ‘buffer zones’ 150 metres around the location of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services. However, this has not come come into force and guidance was subsequently published allowing silent prayer within ‘safe access zones’ where activists would be able to hand out leaflets and engage in conversations with women considering abortions. [...] Vaughan-Spruce’s arrest drew international condemnation and was denounced by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. West Midlands Police later released her without charge and were forced to issue an apology after Vaughan-Spruce complained that she had been arrested for a “thought crime”.