Trial begins for father facing charges over silent prayer near abortion clinic buffer zone
A father and army veteran is lamenting the state of free speech in the United Kingdom as he faces a trial for silently praying outside an abortion clinic.
The trial of Adam Smith-Connor, a pro-life activist charged with violating a Public Space Protection Order by silently praying in front of an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, England, is taking place this week. The trial began Tuesday and is expected to continue through Thursday.
The Public Space Protection Order prohibits people from “protesting, namely engaging in an act of approval/disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means” including “graphic, verbal, or written means, prayer or counseling” within a certain distance of the abortion facility. Critics of the Public Space Protection Order contend that the legislation is ambiguous and amounts to a violation of free speech rights.
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The law firm ADF UK is representing Smith-Connor as litigation surrounding the matter continues. “It is unfathomable that in an apparently free society, I am being criminally charged on the basis of my silent thoughts, in the privacy of my own mind,” Smith-Connor said in a statement released ahead of the trial. “It’s no different than being tried for a thoughtcrime.”
Smith-Connor noted that he had “served for 20 years in the British Army Reserve, including a tour in Afghanistan, to protect the fundamental freedoms this country is built upon.”
He added, “I continue that spirit of service as a health care professional and church volunteer. It troubles me greatly to see our freedoms eroded to the extent that thoughtcrimes are now being prosecuted in the U.K.”
“In permitting the prosecution of silent prayer, we are sailing into dangerous waters regarding human rights protections in the U.K.,” commented ADF UK Legal Counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole. He denounced the Public Space Protection Order implemented by the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council that governs Bournemouth as an “unconstitutional censorship zone.”
Igunnubole chastised “censorship zones” as “inherently wrong” because they “engender unhelpful legal confusion regarding the right to free thought.” He insisted that “both domestic and international law have long established freedom of thought as an absolute right that must not ever be interfered with by the state.”
Igunnubole expressed concern about a report published in The Telegraph suggesting that “Ministers are considering naming ‘silent prayer’ as a crime in their ‘buffer zones’ guidance” that would limit the ability to protest outside an abortion clinic throughout the whole country. He warned that “to do so would not only be a great legal error, it could open up the floodgates to human rights violations similar to those experienced by Adam Smith-Connor.”
Smith-Connor was confronted by law enforcement in November 2022 as he silently prayed outside the abortion facility. Video footage of the encounter shows police officers asking him why he was there, prompting the Army veteran to respond, “I’m praying.”
When the law enforcement officials informed Smith-Connor about the Public Space Protection Order, he indicated that he was aware of it. “I’m praying for my son,” he replied.
One of the officers requested that Smith-Connor elaborate on the content of his prayer and asked if it was “pertinent to the area” where he was standing. After Smith-Connor explained that his son is “deceased,” the officer told him that he was “in breach” of the Public Space Protection Order.
According to ADF UK, Smith-Connor had “paid for an abortion for his ex-girlfriend in the past” and was praying “about his experience, about the child whom he lost, and for the men and women facing difficult decisions about abortion today.” The law firm maintained that Smith-Connor, who now regrets his role in aborting his child, “prayed with his back to the facility to avoid any impression of approaching or engaging with women using the facility.”
While the officers who confronted Smith-Connor as he silently prayed outside the clinic in November 2022 insisted that he was breaking the law, a separate pair of law enforcement officials who encountered him as he prayed outside the clinic five days earlier had reached a different conclusion.
Video footage of the previous encounter, shared by ADF UK on X, shows an officer telling Smith-Connor “We’ve discussed the fact that you stood behind the tree so most of the time you’re out of sight of the clinic, you’re not approaching anybody, you’re not overtly praying, protesting, anything like that.”
“What you’re doing now, you can do,” the officer added. “I can’t make you leave because it’s a public place and you’re allowed to stand here and do what you’re doing.”
ADF UK has reported that the BCP Council has incurred more than £34,000, the equivalent of $44,853.94, in legal fees to prosecute Smith-Connor for an offense that carries a maximum penalty of £1,000, the equivalent of $1,319.23.
Smith-Connor is not the first person in the U.K. to face prosecution for engaging in silent prayer outside an abortion clinic. Pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested and confronted by law enforcement in both 2022 and 2023 for praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham. Last month, the West Midlands Police awarded Vaughan-Spruce a settlement equivalent to nearly $17,000 as part of what ADF UK described as an “acknowledgment of her unjust treatment.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
