Prosecutors have dismissed charges against a Catholic woman arrested for praying silently outside a closed abortion facility.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users” in a censorship zone around an abortion facility on Station Road in Birmingham in December after she admitted to officers that she “might be” praying in her mind.
The Crown Prosecution Service has now decided to discontinue the case against the 45-year-old counsellor from Malvern, Worcestershire.
But it has threatened Ms Vaughan-Spruce that it may revive the charges in the near future if they receive further evidence against her.
Ms Vaughan-Spruce has responded by saying she will seek a court verdict about whether silently praying outside a closed abortion clinic represented an unlawful protest.
She said: “It can’t be right that I was arrested and made a criminal, only for praying in my head on a public street.
“So-called ‘buffer zone legislation’ will result in so many more people like me, doing good and legal activities like offering charitable support to women in crisis pregnancies, or simply praying in their heads, being treated like criminals and even facing court.
“It’s important to me that I can continue my vital work in supporting women who’d like to avoid abortion if they only had some help. In order to do so, it’s vital that I have clarity as to my legal status.
“Many of us need an answer as to whether it’s still lawful to pray silently in our own heads. That’s why I’ll be pursuing a verdict regarding my charges in court.”
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, which is supporting Ms Vaughan-Spruce, said it was right that she sought clarity from the courts.
He said: “It’s one thing for the authorities to humiliatingly search and arrest an individual simply for their thoughts.
“It’s quite another to initially deem those thoughts to be sufficient evidence to justify charges, then discontinue those charges due to ‘insufficient evidence’, and then to warn that further evidence relating to the already unclear charges may soon be forthcoming so as to restart the entire gruelling process from the beginning.
“This is a clear instance of the process becoming the punishment creating a chilling effect on free expression and freedom of thought, conscience and belief.”
He added: “ADF UK remain committed to supporting Isabel’s pursuit because no one should fear prosecution for silent prayer and thoughts in the privacy of their mind,” commented.
Ms Vaughan-Spruce was arrested, searched and held in custody after she told officers that she might have said some silent prayers close to the British Pregnancy Advisory Services’ Robert Clinic in Kings Norton.
She carried no rosary beads or signs but was photographed outside the premises by an onlooker and reported to the police.
In a video which has gone viral, a male officer is seen asking Ms Vaughan-Spruce, 45, what she is “here for today” and she replied: “Physically, I’m just standing here.”
He then asked her if she is making a protest and she replied: “I am not protesting, no.”
The police officer asked her directly: “Are you praying?”
She answered: “I might be praying in my head.”
Adam Smith-Connor was later arrested for praying outside a clinic in Bournemouth.
Last year, a grandmother from Liverpool successfully appealed against her conviction and fine for praying silently near an abortion facility on a walk during lockdown.
On Monday, the House of Lords has backed the national roll out of buffer zones around abortion clinics in a move which could turn private and silent prayer into a thought crime.
Peers voted in favour a move to criminalise activity that seeks to “influence” the decision of women booked in for abortions to go ahead with the procedure.
After a Report Stage debate, they also rejected an amendment tabled to the Public Order Bill to investigate the evidence that would justify so-called exclusion zones and the corresponding denial of the recognised human rights of association, conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
They supported Amendment 45, tabled by Conservative peer Baroness Sugg of Coldharbour, to make it a crime to influence “any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services”.
It also makes it a criminal offence to cause “harassment, alarm or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services” within 150 metres of an abortion clinic.
The Bill is due to be ratified in the House of Commons, which successfully inserted a buffer zone clause which was replaced by Amendment 45.