SW News: Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a 45-year-old pro-life activist, was arrested on December 6 for praying outside an abortion clinic in Kings Norton in the United Kingdom. She was praying outside BPAS Robert Clinic and was later released on bail. This arrest comes three months after the Birmingham City Council passed an order establishing a ‘buffer zone’ around the abortion clinic.

Local pro-life groups have been raising concerns over the order. ADF UK said in a statement that Isabel was arrested and charged on four counts after she told the police she “might” be praying silently, when they asked her the reason why she was standing on a public street near the abortion facility. “It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind,” Isabel said following the arrest.

She said, “Nobody should be criminalized for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK.”

ADF UK’s Jeremiah Igunnubole lamented the incident saying that her “experience should be deeply concerning to all those who believe that our hard-fought fundamental rights are worth protecting.” Jeremiah called the increasing number of buffer-zone orders “a watershed moment” in the United Kingdom.

Politicians in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been proposing legislation to ban pro-life activities around abortion clinics.