Charges Dropped Against Woman Arrested for ‘Silently Praying’ Outside Closed Abortion Clinic
After a six-month-long investigation, police have dropped all charges against March For Life UK Director Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who they arrested late last year and charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users” after she was spotted praying silently outside a closed abortion clinic, in defiance of a ‘buffer zone’ created for the murder mill. According to Life News:
British police arrested Isabel Vaughan-Spruce late last year for praying silently outside an abortion facility in Birmingham after a censorship zone had been approved prohibiting pro-life people from protesting, counseling, praying or even being located in the zone. Vaughan-Spruce was carrying no sign and remained completely silent until approached by officers and said she “might” have been praying at the time of her arrest.
Following a six-month investigation, West Midlands Police have confirmed that they will not bring charges against Vaughan-Spruce, issuing an apology for the length of time to reach the decision not to prosecute her for silent prayer.
Much like Canada has intolerably strict buffer zones around all abortion clinics that make it illegal to protest within 300 feet, punishing participants with a year of jail time for a first-time offense, some British buffer zones make it illegal to “harass” or “intimate” anyone within 450 feet of the building.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce told reporters that she would continue to pray outside the abortuaries, while at the same time lamenting laws that shouldn’t exist in the first place:
“This isn’t 1984, but 2023 – I should never have been arrested or investigated simply for the thoughts I held in my own mind. Silent prayer is never criminal. I welcome West Midland Police’s decision to end their investigation and their apology for the time it took to do so, but it’s important to highlight the extremely harmful implications of this ordeal not just for myself, but for everyone concerned with fundamental freedoms in the UK. What happened to me signals to others that they too could face arrest, interrogation, investigation, and potential prosecution if caught exercising their basic freedom of thought”
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Surely, one of the most chilling, unimaginable things Christians have witnessed this year – and that’s saying something.
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