U.K. pastor’s prosecution suggests “creeping censorship”

A U.K. judge last Thursday found a retired pastor guilty of violating a “safe access zone” by holding an open-air religious service near a medical facility that performs abortions. The pastor, Clive Johnston, said the verdict signaled “a very dark day for Christian freedom.”

A 2023 law designated eight zones across Northern Ireland that extend anywhere from 320 feet to 820 feet around facilities that perform abortions. The legislation blocks people from “influencing” or “causing harassment, alarm or distress” to women entering the buildings. But verdicts in cases like Johnston’s have prompted some legal experts to say the zones violate religious and free speech rights.

In 2024, Johnston played a ukulele while leading worship on a sidewalk outside of Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. As cars rushed by on the busy street, a small group stood around Johnston while he preached on John 3:16.

But after Johnston started preaching, a group of police officers interrupted and told him he was breaking the law. They said Johnston was within a “safe access zone” surrounding the hospital, which provides abortions.

“We are not mentioning an abortion,” Johnston told the officer. “This is not a rally. This is simply proclaiming a message that will change people’s lives.” The officer again asked Johnston to leave, and when he refused to do so, the officer asked for his information to issue him a caution. Johnston later received notice he was being prosecuted for his act.

On Thursday, Johnston was found guilty of breaching the abortion buffer zone. District Judge Peter King ruled that the 78-year-old grandfather of seven attempted to “influence” people accessing the hospital’s abortion services. The Coleraine Magistrates’ Court judge said Johnston also broke the law when he did not immediately leave when directed to by police. The court issued Johnston a fine of around $610.

“There shouldn’t be any public spaces in Northern Ireland where you can be prosecuted and convicted simply for preaching the gospel,” Johnston said outside the courthouse Thursday. “Yet the buffer zone legislation is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offense.”

He added, “If someone is out there causing trouble, stirring up violence, harassing or verbally attacking people, then, absolutely, go ahead and prosecute them. But I wasn’t doing any of those things.”

The zones operate with imaginary lines around the facilities, said Ciarán Kelly, director of the Christian Institute, which represents Johnston. Signs are posted to warn the public when they enter into one of the zones, Kelly told me.

Johnston, the former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, worried that officials would use these buffer zone laws to bar preaching within the zones, Kelly said. So Johnston decided to preach in one of the zones to prove the law allowed him to do so.

But authorities’ response to his sermon shows that the zoning law has turned gospel messages into criminal acts, Kelly said. “You have a situation here where a man was speaking about something which was not abortion, and the law about abortion has been used to criminalize it,” he said. “That should concern anybody, Christian or not, pro-abortion or not. That should concern anybody who values free speech.”

The judge said he convicted Johnston because he “tested the law to the point where he broke the law,” according to BBC News. The judge also said that Johnston’s previous association with pro-life views indicated he intended to influence women, Kelly said, adding that Johnston is considering options for appeal.

The United Kingdom has similar buffer zones across it, Kelly explained. While the laws vary from area to area, all seek to prevent any outside influence on women entering abortion facilities.

U.K. courts have used abortion buffer zone rules to stop varying amounts of speech in recent years. Livia Tossici-Bolt, a retired medical scientist, was fined in April 2025 for offering a chance to chat within a zone in Bournemouth, England. She stood in the zone quietly while holding a sign that read, “Here to talk if you want.”

In October 2024, army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was convicted for silently praying in a zone in the same town, though he stood still and spoke to no one while praying. In February 2025, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance called Smith-Connor’s case a “concerning” sign for freedom of speech and religion.

Johnston is the first person to be convicted under the abortion zone law for activities unrelated to abortion, according to the Christian Institute. Kelly said the zoning laws are causing people to second-guess their speech and religious rights in the U.K.

“You can see this creeping censorship,” Kelly said. “The creeping is the worry that the law can say one thing, but then if it starts being applied in a slightly broader way, then you get the chilling effect of people starting to become concerned about what they can and can’t do.”

Buffer zone convictions have raised concern internationally, noted Michael Phillips, a consulting attorney for Christian Legal Centre.

“People who ordinarily would never have been convicted in a million years … are now being convicted, and that then sends a message to other countries around the world,” Phillips said. “When something happens in Great Britain, then other countries will then look at what’s happening here and take notes and may well follow suit.”