UK woman fights prosecution for praying outside abortion clinic

A Christian girl in the UK went to court docket earlier this week to problem the prosecution she confronted final fall for protesting and praying exterior an abortion clinic.

Claire Brennan, 52, and her wheelchair-bound colleague David Corridor had been arrested final October for holding an indication and reciting The Lord’s Prayer exterior Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, Northern Eire, in accordance with her authorized counsel on the London-based Christian Authorized Centre.

They appealed their arrests on the Coleraine Magistrates Court docket on Tuesday, their attorneys mentioned.

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Brennan and Corridor had been allegedly violating the Abortion Companies (Protected Entry Zones) Act (Northern Eire), a legislation handed final yr in Northern Eire that prohibits protests of any type inside a 100-meter radius (109 yards) of abortion clinics within the nation.

The legislation resembles related legal guidelines in England, Scotland and Wales, in addition to the Freedom of Entry to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) Act in america that the U.S. Division of Justice has used to imprison pro-life advocates protesting exterior abortion clinics.

In accordance with footage of Brennan’s trade with police on Oct. 3, 2023, officers confront Brennan as she’s reciting the Lord’s Prayer exterior the hospital. She was additionally holding a rosary and an indication studying, “Pray to end abortion.”

“If you carry on protesting here, you will be arrested and you will be removed from here, and a report’s going to go on to the [Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland],” one of many officers warns.

“If you do not move from that exclusion zone, my only recourse is to arrest you and remove you from the exclusion zone,” he mentioned.

The identical officer additionally pushed again towards her assertion that she had an ethical obligation to be there and referred to as her “really stubborn and ignorant” for disobeying the legislation.

“The law of the land stops me from upholding the law of God. … We pray for the babies who will be imminently killed in this hospital,” Brennan reportedly mentioned.

In an announcement forward of her court docket listening to, Brennan mentioned she believes she did nothing unsuitable. She additionally lamented “the expansion of abortion services in Northern Ireland in recent years,” and expressed her perception that buffer zone legal guidelines are inherently discriminatory towards Christians.

“We’d like pressing change to roll again what has occurred on this nation and to uphold God’s legislation not man’s legislation,” she said. “The unborn are probably the most susceptible and in danger in our society and we have now forgotten our ethical obligation to do all the things we are able to to guard their lives and to supply susceptible moms with options to abortion.”

“The legislation discriminates against Christian beliefs and their expression. If we are not free to express prayer against abortion outside of a clinic without being criminalized, then none of us are free,” she continued.

“I imagine I’ve completed completely nothing unsuitable. If the courts discover that I’ve and resolve to convict me then we’re in a really darkish place certainly,” she added.

Andrea Williams, who serves as chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, noted in a statement how abortion in Northern Ireland had been permitted only to save the life of the mother until 2020.

“Since that law changed in March 2020, there has been a two and a half times increase in the annual number of abortions,” mentioned Williams. “This is a tragedy, and anyone who cares about protecting life should be especially concerned by what has happened in Northern Ireland in recent years.”

Williams believes that exclusion zones prohibiting free speech exterior abortion clinics “are an oppressive part of the current culture which force consent and silence dissent.”

“The saddest thing of all is that we are actually talking about human lives,” she added.

Different Christians within the U.Ok. have confronted related prosecution for quiet protests exterior the “exclusion zones” round abortion clinics.

Final September, the West Midlands Police dropped prices towards Isabel Vaughn-Spruce and apologized for arresting her twice for praying silently exterior an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England.

Final yr, eight members of the U.S. Home of Representatives despatched a letter to Rashad Hussain, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for worldwide non secular freedom, expressing their considerations in regards to the U.Ok.’s therapy of Christians.

The lawmakers particularly pinpointed the “Public Spaces Protection Orders” in a number of U.Ok. municipalities that created “buffer zones” round abortion clinics roughly the scale of a soccer stadium, through which pro-life people are prohibited from providing assist, praying or expressing any perceived disapproval of abortion.