CV NEWS FEED // In the latest example of England’s crackdown on the expression of pro-life views, a retired medical scientist has been charged with violating an abortion clinic’s “buffer zone” for holding a peaceful sign offering conversations.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International reported Feb. 6 that 63-year-old Livia Tossici-Bolt held up a sign reading “here to talk if you want” outside of an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, which is in the country of Dorset, England.
Several women approached Tossici-Bolt and discussed what was going on in their lives. However, local authorities also approached her and claimed she was violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) that bans “expression of approval or disapproval of abortion” within an approximately 500-ft “buffer zone” outside of an abortion clinic.
Tossici-Bolt refused to pay her Fixed Penalty notice, arguing that she had the right to offer consensual conversations under the Human Rights Act, Article 10. Her trial will take place March 6 at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court, and ADF UK will support her legal defense.
England’s 2023 legislation enforcing abortion clinics’ “buffer zones” bans any form of “influence of a person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services.”
The law has led to several trials and arrests, including that of Adam Smith-Connor, who recently set an appeal date after he was convicted for standing near an abortion clinic while praying silently, as CatholicVote previously reported.
Isabella Vaughn-Spruce, who was arrested twice for praying silently, later received an apology and payment from the police.
“I have been arrested multiple times, faced an intrusive police investigation, and dragged into court – simply for standing silently on a public street nearby an abortion clinic, praying, imperceptibly, in the privacy of my mind,” Vaughn-Spruce stated, according to ADF’s report. “Meanwhile, how many true criminals roam the streets, unchecked? How many of the perpetrators of the grooming gangs were left unaccountable for their violent and despicable actions towards children?”
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