CV NEWS FEED // British pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was told she cannot stand silently near an abortion clinic six months after police apologized and paid her for previous unjust persecution of her pro-life activities.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International’s Feb. 10 report includes new footage in which a police officer tells Vaughan-Spruce, “Your mere presence here is causing people harassment, harm, and distress.”
He claimed that she was violating the country’s “buffer zone” laws, which forbid an attempt to influence somebody’s decision to abort their child within approximately 500 feet of an abortion clinic.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Vaughan-Spruce has been arrested twice for silently praying within “buffer zones.” In August 2024, the police apologized and paid her £13,000 (around $16,125) for violating her human rights.
Vaughan-Spruce told the officer that police told her she is allowed to be in the area. He repeated that she was causing “distress” and that she, personally, was not allowed in the area because she is a recognizable pro-life figure and leader of a pro-life organization.
Vaughan-Spruce has volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center for 20 years. She has also co-directed the March for Life UK and prayed outside abortion clinics on a weekly basis.
Vaughan-Spruce noted that the local court, police, the former Home Secretary, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have made it clear that a person cannot break the law by simply standing quietly in a public place.
“Every person has a right to stand in a public space and think what they want,” she continued. “The police officer told me that my ‘mere presence’ was offensive — that’s nothing short of viewpoint discrimination. He believes that just because I hold pro-life beliefs, I am automatically a criminal in certain public areas. This isn’t right.”
Vaughan-Spruce, with the support of ADF UK, wrote a letter after the incident asking the police to clarify that standing silently in a public space is not a criminal offense.
