{"id":21110,"date":"2022-12-30T01:08:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T01:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adf.uk\/?p=9800"},"modified":"2024-01-26T13:28:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T12:28:47","slug":"is-prayer-intimidating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/en-gb\/news\/is-prayer-intimidating","title":{"rendered":"NEW: Details of charges against silently praying charity volunteer now public \u2013 prayer deemed \u201cintimidating\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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  • Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has been charged with \u201cprotesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating<\/span><\/b> to service users<\/span><\/b>\u201d on account of her SILENT PRAYER in abortion facility \u201cbuffer zone\u201d – while the abortion facility was closed<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>
    • Viral video shows Vaughan-Spruce searched, arrested after being asked \u201care you praying\u201d by three police officers\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/li><\/ul>

      \u00a0Public appeal launched by ADF UK – Support Isabel: <\/span><\/b>www.adf.uk\/support-isabel<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      BIRMINGHAM (30<\/span><\/b>th<\/span><\/b> December 2022) <\/span><\/b>– After a video of a charity volunteer\u2019s arrest outside of an abortion facility went viral this month, further details have emerged as to the nature of the charges that she now faces.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, 45, was standing still and silently when police approached her. When asked what she was doing, she clarified that she was not protesting, but \u201cmight be\u201d praying inside her mind.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      She was searched, arrested, interrogated, and charged on four counts for breaking the so-called \u201cbuffer zone\u201d around a Birmingham abortion facility. The full text of the local Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), banning prayer, among other activities considered to constitute protest, as part of the censorial \u201cbuffer zone\u201d is available <\/a><\/span>here.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>The terms of the PSPO define protest as including prayer, and also prohibit any act or attempted act of intimidation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      The abortion facility was closed each time that Vaughan-Spruce chose to pray since the introduction of the \u201cbuffer zone\u201d in November. Furthermore, she had made clear to the arresting officers that she was not there to protest. It was only after police inferred that she might be praying in her head, per her admission, that she was arrested. It thus follows that Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for silent prayer as a form of protest under the PSPO.<\/span><\/p>

      Despite only praying silently within her mind, Vaughan-Spruce was subsequently charged with \u201cp<\/span>rotesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users\u201d.<\/span><\/p>

      Based on the charges, the act of standing silently was also deemed \u201cintimidating” behaviour, even though the abortion facility was closed and there was no discernible subject of this intimidation, and despite her clear admission that she was not there to protest.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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      Vaughan-Spruce will face court on 2<\/span>nd<\/span> February. ADF UK are supporting her defense.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      Arrested for a \u201cthoughtcrime\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      \u201cNobody should be arrested because of their silent thoughts. Isabel has been clear that all she had done in the PSPO zone since it was instituted in November was to pray, silently, in the privacy of her own mind. Had police not asked her what she was doing, and had she not let them know that she \u201cmight\u201d be praying in her mind, there are no grounds under which she would have been charged for breaking the PSPO,\u201d explained Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, supporting Isabel Vaughan-Spruce.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      \u201cIf Isabel had been loudly campaigning against climate change on the street, she would not have been charged for breaking the PSPO. \u00a0But it appears that the police have now charged her solely on the basis of her admissions that she prayed silently, raising her thoughts about abortion to God in her mind. We are in wholly unprecedented territory if individuals are now being prosecuted for their thoughts, and if peaceful, silent prayer in a public space is now interpreted as \u201cintimidating\u201d. Somewhere along the line we have taken our eyes off the ball \u2013 our robust legal tradition of protecting civil liberties has been replaced with routine and cavalier violations of freedom of speech and belief, and now even freedom of thought,\u201d \u00a0he continued.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      Vaughan-Spruce has spoken of her experience on GB News:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      \"\ud83d\udea8\"NEW CLIP: Isabel speaks to @Nigel_Farage<\/a> about exactly what happened at the abortion facility that led to her arrest.<\/p>

      Should anyone be arrested merely for thinking, inside an abortion facility \u201cbuffer zone\u201d?<\/p>

      SUPPORT ISABEL: https:\/\/t.co\/2tzmwwr0y5<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/KtUpfh0M6F<\/a><\/p>

      \u2014 ADF UK (@ADF_UK) December 29, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>