Thread by @madeleinekearns

REPORT: Citizens in the UK have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted under local laws for silently praying outside abortion clinics.

This fall, these laws are going national in England, Wales, and Scotland. 🧵

Scotland’s brand-new “Safe Access” law has made it a crime to do *anything* within 200 meters of an abortion clinic that could “influence” someone’s decision to get or provide an abortion.

These newly designated abortion censorship zones can even include private homes.

UK citizens have already been prosecuted for silent prayer and one faces trial for holding a sign: “Here to talk, if you want.”

A British veteran was convicted last week after 3 mins of silent prayer within a censorship zone. He was ordered to pay $11,700. There are others.

Abortion advocates claim these laws prevent women from being harassed outside of clinics, but existing laws criminalize harassment, and official police data obtained through FOI shows no evidence of antiabortion activists breaking them.

Arguments for censorship zones rely on a caricatured version of anti-abortion activities.

I spoke to women who said, far from intimidating or harassing them, pro-life volunteers were a lifeline in desperate circumstances. E.g. @GoodCounselNet helped pay a woman's rent for 5 yrs

Political bias appears to be driving these laws and how they’re enforced.

As anti-abortion activists are prosecuted for silent prayer, death threats made in their direction are almost entirely ignored by British authorities:

Read all this and more in my report with @TheFP: thefp.com/p/abortion-buf…