UK Court Allows City to Keep Buffer Zone Banning Prayer, Bible Reading

Bournemouth’s buffer zone encircles an abortion clinic and includes private residences

An English High Court has allowed a 150-meter buffer zone around an abortion clinic to stand following a challenge from local pro-life advocates who argued that banning Bible reading and prayer constituted a violation of free speech.

The Christian Post reports that Lord Justice Warby and Justice Thornton ruled against 40 Days for Life Bournemouth, which had sought to contest the legality of the exclusion zone around the British Pregnancy Advisory Group’s abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council established the zone through a Public Spaces Protection Order in October 2022 which the Christian Legal Center, in support of 40 Days for Life’s legal challenge, had been the result of “unlawful” proceedings.

Such buffer zones around abortion clinics have been established around clinics in England following an amendment to the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act that was passed in January.

Pro-life ministries whose members attempt to pray for and reach out to abortion-seeking women outside clinics have found their activities restricted, with a few notable cases of volunteers being cited for silent prayer.

Bournemouth’s zone, however, also happens to include private residences so critics have raised concerns that private citizens could be arrested for praying or reading the Bible in their own homes.

Christian Concern, of which the Christian Legal Center acts as a legal arm, plans to challenge the ruling.