Safe zones outside abortion clinics come into effect in England and Wales from today - with harassers facing unlimited fines
Safe zones outside abortion clinics come into effect in England and Wales today and harassers will face unlimited fines.
The new legislation will ban protests, including silent prayer, within a 150-metre zone of a clinic or hospital offering abortion services.
The former Conservative government told police that silent prayer should be allowed inside the new 'safe access zones'.
But now new guidance states people within the zones will be banned from trying to influence any woman's decision to have an abortion, stop them from entering, harass them or cause distress.
The ban includes trying to hand out abortion leaflets, protesting against abortion rights, or shouting at people trying to enter a clinic.
The Home Office said it may also include silent prayer or 'any behaviour where someone is intentionally trying to – or recklessly acting in a way that might – influence a person accessing the service'.
A Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council sign outlining the safe zone rules
An Anti-abortion campaigner stands on Whitfields Street near the Marie Stopes International (MSI) Reproductive Choices treatment centre in London today
Members of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children demonstrate outside parliament today
Anyone found guilty of breaking the new laws could be hit with an unlimited fine, with police to determine whether the actions meet the threshold for prosecution.
Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister responsible for safeguarding, said: 'The idea that any woman is made to feel unsafe or harassed for accessing health services, including abortion clinics is sickening. This stops today.'
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said: 'I'm confident that the safeguards we have put in place today will have a genuine impact in helping women feel safer and empowered to access the vital services they need.'
In October, ex-serviceman Adam Smith-Connor was convicted of breaching the safe zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.
Poole Magistrates' Court heard he stood near a tree, with his head bowed and hands clasped as he silently prayed, partially in view of the clinic, and refused to leave the area when asked to do so by a community officer who spoke to him for an hour and 40 minutes.
He had denied failing to comply with 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 after the legal proceedings brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.
Members of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children demonstrate advocate a world free of abortions today in Westminster, London
ADF UK said it is supporting 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 attempting to criminalise silent prayer after being cleared of charges claiming he intimidated service users near an abortion clinic.
Charges of failing to comply with 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 criticised the decision to charge them for 'silently praying' and 'praying for free speech', saying they had been put 'on trial for praying in an abortion facility censorship zone'.
