Criminal invocation

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, head of March for Life UK, was arrested twice for praying silently near an abortion facility in Birmingham, England, in 2022 and 2023. This August, she received a payout of around $17,000 from the police, whom she accused of unlawful arrest, false imprisonment, and assault (for a wrongful search). Vaughan-Spruce has been involved in pro-life work for 20 years, and she now worries about the state of free speech in the United Kingdom. Here are edited excerpts of our conversation.

You have for two decades prayed outside of U.K. abortion centers, including, more recently, the one in Birmingham. Were the neighbors there supportive or antagonistic? Some locals really welcomed us, offering us cups of tea and use of their bathrooms. Others were vehemently opposed to us. Many of my volunteers were spat at, sworn at, and even assaulted physically. We contacted the police and would try and tell them, and they simply said things like, “Well, if you don’t want to be assaulted, you don’t have to come out of your house, do you?”

Then the town of Birmingham passed a buffer zone ordinance? The local council and the local police force worked together to bring in a public space protection order, or PSPO. These zones were once used to deal with things like drunk and disorderly behavior. The PSPO created a buffer zone around the abortion center, and that was enforced in September 2022. Just to make it clear, it doesn’t ban people, simply certain types of behavior. And one of the types of behavior that’s banned is protesting. I’ve never protested outside abortion centers. I go there to pray, and I go there to offer help. So that’s how I reasoned that I was perfectly entitled to go within this zone and say my prayers.

How did you get arrested that November? I went in the zone while the abortion center was closed, stood a distance from the abortion center, and silently said some prayers in my head. I wasn’t carrying any poster or leaflets. I wasn’t holding anything that even showed I was praying, like a Bible or rosary beads. Some of the locals, I believe, phoned up. The police, who obviously knew who I was, came out and asked what I was doing, and I said, “I’m just simply standing here.” And they said, “Are you praying?” And I said, “Well, I might be praying in my head, but nothing out loud.” And it was simply on that basis that they arrested me, took me to the police station. I was locked in a cell for hours and then questioned. I eventually had to go to court, where I was acquitted in minutes. But sadly, some two weeks later, I was rearrested for the same thing.

That was March 6, 2023. What happened that time? I was standing in exactly the same place I had been before, silently praying in my head. This time, six police officers came with a police van, and they actually specifically said to me, “Your prayers are an offense.”

Were you surprised? Very surprised, considering I’d just been acquitted in court. I was the one being accused of harassment and intimidation, but it just seemed so ironic—to have six police officers come to this one woman saying some prayers in her head. If that’s not intimidation, I don’t know what is.

Before 2022, had you ever been arrested for pro-life activism? No, I hadn’t been arrested for anything. I’ve always been a very law-abiding citizen. Prior to the buffer zone, we would pray in groups of two or maybe three outside the abortion center and just offer help to women going in. It would just be leaflets that explained what help was available to them as well as sharing some of the risks associated with abortion to make sure that they were informed of the facts. And we had many women over the years who were very glad to accept our help and managed to continue their pregnancies.

You say the local buffer zone laws were badly worded and vague. I do think that we need greater clarity to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. But sadly, we’ve now had national buffer zones voted on here in the U.K., which are likely to be enforced very soon. At the moment, there’s just five abortion centers where local councils and police forces have brought in a buffer zone. The new law would mean every abortion center in the country would have a zone around it—150 meters around the abortion center where certain activities aren’t allowed to happen. In my mind, this can’t be silent prayer because silent prayer can’t be something that we can criminalize. It’s not in accord with our most basic human rights.

How would you describe the pro-life movement in your country? I think it is really growing. When I first started running the March for Life, it would almost be a case of pushing the young people to the front for any photographs. Now it is just swarming with young people with families. More people are wising up to the truth about abortion. Sadly, I think one of the reasons for this is because many people have themselves been a victim of abortion. We have around a quarter of a million abortions every year here, and the figures are that around 1 in 3 women of reproductive age have had an abortion.

Your silent prayer was treated like a thought crime. How would you describe the state of free speech in the U.K.? We have got growing concerns about it, and particularly amongst Christians and pro-lifers. Pro-lifers, for quite a few years, have been at the brunt of a two-tier policing, being told that they can’t behave in a way that other people can. Or not being taken seriously when they’ve been harassed or intimidated or abused by people. It’s great that we’ve got organizations here like Alliance Defending Freedom UK, who supported me, and like Christian Concern, who support so many people, like Christian preachers accused of hate speech or all sorts of things simply because they’ve shared the gospel. I do think it’s becoming worrying. It’s always understandable that people might object to these things. But that police officers are going as far as to arrest people, and that it’s going to court, that’s the big concern.

Do you think your settlement will have a broader impact beyond your own case? I sincerely think it will, yes. I know that police forces around the country are being made aware of this payout. I think maybe it will remind them that whilst Christians are peaceful, we’re not doormats. We have to stand up for our rights because we are standing up for others. If we are silenced, then there’s nobody to speak for the preborn child. So not necessarily for our own sakes, but for the sake of others, we have to make sure our rights are upheld—and also just for the sake of common justice. Nobody should be criminalized for silent prayers.