Britain Just Made It Illegal to Silently Pray Outside Abortion Centers

On October 31, 2024, it became illegal to protest against abortion, hand out leaflets, or even silently pray within 150 metres of any abortion facility in England and Wales, on pain of an unlimited fine.

Coming into force on Halloween, this creepy new law was a treat for the abortion industry, which can anticipate a hefty rise in income, but a trick on everyone else; for although harassment is already illegal and there is no evidence of it being committed by pro-lifers, the British public has been tricked into thinking otherwise.

We have come a long way from the Nuremberg Trials, when abortion was regarded as a crime against humanity, and the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrined the right to life from conception.

Left-liberal politicians once extolled human rights; now they ban free speech. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law via the 1998 Human Rights Act, thus protecting our right to freedom of expression. This right, according to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, includes “freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers”.

REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.

Without the right to be born – something that over 10 million humans killed in the UK since 1967 will never enjoy – all other human rights are superfluous.

Abortion is the leading cause of death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, there are 73 million abortions every year. But in 2021, the latest year for which we have comprehensive figures, the top 10 causes of death accounted for only 39 million deaths. Silencing that truth is the worst form of censorship.

And it will lead to deep social unrest. While the UN demands that member states decriminalise abortion, the apparent solution to declining Western birth rates is not curbing abortion but allowing mass migration.

Furthermore, abortion is protected while the public is menaced by real crime, and highly disruptive environmental and “just stop Israel” protests are treated with kid gloves.

When six policemen were sent to arrest pro-lifer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce for silently praying, commentator Nick Ferrari, one of few to express shock, noted the double standards involved: “[H]ow come we live in a country where you can get arrested for praying, but police offer to get you a blanket if you close down a motorway or lie in front of an ambulance?”

Good question. The liberal left’s woke views now predominate in Britain, and they no longer call for free speech but for curbs on it – all in the name of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. For them, 1984 is not a warning but a how-to guide.

UK political commentator Matt Goodwin says this is a classic example of government by “the Luxury Belief Class”, who “prioritise clamping down on vague and abstract notions of ‘hate’ while simultaneously failing to deliver core public services that keep people safe.” He describes numbers of non-crime hate reports as “mind-boggling”, and although these are officially recorded, the accused will “never know…because police are under no obligation to notify them”. Significantly, “no evidence is required”. Just like prayer in the the buffer zones.

LifeNews Note: Ann Farmer is a writer at MercatorNet where this story appeared.

The post Britain Just Made It Illegal to Silently Pray Outside Abortion Centers appeared first on LifeNews.com.