The UK’s House of Lords has backed a national roll out of buffer zones around abortion clinics in a move which could turn private and silent prayer within them 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”.

Referring to recent cases of people being charged after praying near abortion clinics, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, said: “These cases further highlight the dangers to free expression and belief inherent in these buffer zones. They demonstrate how quickly the position could be that the specific act that turns someone into a criminal is whether they had particular thoughts in their head while in a buffer zone area.”