What are the areas of safe access and silent prayer is prohibited?

So-called buffer zones outside abortion clinics in England and Wales are now in place.

Silent prayer, which has been a point of contention, is not an automatic offence, but people doing it in the zones could be liable to prosecution, according to the new guidelines.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at the new areas and opposing views on the issue.

Known as “safe access zones” in the legislation, these are areas within 150 meters of a clinic or hospital that offers abortion services.

Under the Public Order Act 2023, it is an offense for someone in this area to do anything which willfully or recklessly influences someone’s decision to use abortion services, hinders them or causes harassment, alarm or distress to someone using or he works at the headquarters.

Any person found guilty of such an offense will be liable to an unlimited fine.

England and Wales.

Legislation creating buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland, banning any protests or vigils there, came into effect last month.

In Northern Ireland, safe access zones at health service premises providing abortion and birth control services are in place from September 2023.

A similar measure was in place outside some clinics, but these were passed by councils rather than being national legislation.

Known as public space protection orders (PSPOs), the first in the UK were passed by Ealing Council in west London in April 2018, outside the MSI Reproductive Choices Clinic in Mattock Lane.

Participants have long argued for the need for national legislation, arguing that PSPOs depend on the will of local councils, are time-limited, can be expensive and lead to a postcode lottery.

The bill – which is generally aimed at curbing guerrilla protest tactics used by groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion – received royal assent on 2 May 2023, becoming law.

But in December, the then Conservative government launched a consultation on non-statutory guidance on the enforcement of safe access zones.

This guidance suggested that praying in such an area “should not automatically be seen as illegal” and that silent prayer “is protected as an absolute right under the Human Rights Act 1998”.

Yes. Pro-choice activists argued that the draft guidance did not reflect the debate in Parliament.

In March 2023, MPs rejected attempts to allow silent prayer in the zones.

A group of Tory MPs and the DUP have tabled an amendment to ensure that no offense is committed if a person is “engaged in consensual communication or silent prayer” outside clinics or hospitals offering abortion services.

They argued that this section of the bill “leads us into thought crime territory”, while one MP described it as “dystopian”.

But in a free vote, the proposal was defeated by 116 votes to 299 – a majority of 183.

Final guidance was never published following the consultation.

Then-Home Office minister Laura Farris, at a committee hearing in March, dismissed the idea that the government was trying to “water down” the legislation by allowing silent prayer, saying: “I think they’re trying to judge where the line is between competing rights and obligations. And I think silent prayer is a difficult category in that regard.”

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has published guidance for prosecutors which states that there is no defense on religious or ethical grounds for people who try to influence, obstruct or harass others in safe access areas.

The guidance refers to a 2022 Supreme Court ruling on safe access zones in Northern Ireland, where the court found silent prayer to be among the acts that “were capable of falling within the scope of the statutory provision”.

The guidance states that “a person who carries out any of these activities in a secure access area will not necessarily be committing an offence”.

It adds: “Prosecutors will need to consider not only all the facts and circumstances of a particular conduct, but also the context in which the conduct occurs.”

In reviewing cases, it states that prosecutors should clearly identify “the overt act giving rise to the crime” and evidence “from which the requisite intent or recklessness can be inferred.”

The Policing College has published what it described as a “brief” for officers on Section 9 of the Act, which deals with safe access areas.

It states: “All decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis and must be balanced and proportionate to the circumstances.”

The Home Office said the guidance would “ensure there is clarity and consistency with the application of the new offence”.

There is no requirement in legislation for areas to be demarcated.

The person suspected of a crime must not know or believe they are in a secure access area, CPS guidance states.

It is understood that local police forces will work with the clinics to decide whether signage demarcating the areas would be useful or not.

Participants argued that not allowing silent prayer threatens their rights to freedom of expression and religious belief.

Right To Life UK said the zones would mean “the vital practical support provided by volunteers outside abortion clinics, who help deliver genuine choice and offer help to women who may be under coercion, will be removed”.

The UK branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said the right to engage in silent prayer was “the most basic of human rights” and described the establishment of buffer zones as “a watershed moment for British freedoms”.

Heidi Stewart, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), welcomed the areas which she said “can’t come soon enough” after years of patients and clinic staff facing “anti-abortion fanatics who sit for hours outside the clinics”. ” stares, hands out leaflets and displays “graphic and disturbing posters”.

Louise McCudden, from MSI Reproductive Choices, said the new zones would protect women and frontline health workers, adding: “Whatever your personal views on abortion, no one should be harassed while accessing healthcare.” .

Yes. In October, ex-serviceman Adam Smith-Connor was convicted of breaching the safety zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

Poole Crown Court heard he sat by a tree with his head bowed and hands clasped as he prayed silently, partly in view of the clinic, and refused to leave the area when asked by a community officer who spoke to him. for one hour and 40 minutes.

He denied breaching the PSPO but was found guilty, with a judge saying what he did was “deliberate”.

Smith-Connor was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 in court costs and victim surcharge following legal proceedings brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

ADF UK said it was backing Smith-Connor with an appeal against his conviction.

In February 2023, a Catholic priest accused the government of “censoring the streets of the UK” and trying to criminalize silent prayer after he was cleared of charges that he had intimidated service users near an abortion clinic.

Charges of breaching a PSPO brought against Father Sean Gough and charity volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce were withdrawn during a hearing at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.

Fr Gough and Ms Vaughan-Spruce criticized the decision to charge them for “silent prayer” and “praying for free speech”, saying they had been put “on trial for praying in a censored area of ​​a detention center abortion”.