New UK Guidelines Say Silent Prayer Prohibited Within 500ft of Abortion Clinics

As the UK government deals with a spate of high-profile cases that have seen men and women arrested for praying silently outside abortion clinics, the country’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has issued new guidelines on how to deal with this terrorizing activity, prohibiting it altogether.

According to the new policy, men and women who silently pray within 500 feet of an abortion clinic, which is now against the law, will not be automatically criminalized but instead will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. According to Premiere Christian News:

“New CPS guidance lists activities which will be prohibited within the zones as:

Informing, advising, offering counseling, or attempting to persuade someone in relation to the use of abortion facilities;
Handing out leaflets with information or misinformation on abortions;
Holding bibles or fetal dolls;
Displaying images of fetuses or babies;
Singing around religious pictures;
Holding a vigil or praying, including silent prayer.

That last one is important. While silent prayer will now be prohibited, the new law states that “A person who carries out any of these activities within a safe access zone will not necessarily commit a criminal offense” and that “Prosecutors will need to consider not only all the facts and circumstances of the particular conduct but also the context in which the conduct takes place.”

Put another way, it could very well be a criminal offense, but prosecutors would have to prove someone was praying silently within the buffer zone in the first place, rather than just thinking to themselves, and also likely that there was some intent behind it to harass or intimidate incoming baby murderers by those prayers.

There is no upper limit or cap on the files that protesters or praying folks could receive, and a CPS spokesperson said of the new law:

“The CPS will take seriously any allegations of criminality associated with protests but will balance this against the right to peaceful and lawful protests, when applying our legal test. We have issued legal guidance to prosecutors to reflect this balance following on from the new legislation that has been passed on protests outside places providing abortion services.”