The UK Court of Appeal will hear a pro-life activist’s challenge against London’s Ealing Council regarding its Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which criminalised pro-life activity outside abortion clinics. Simon Harris is considering a similar nationwide ban here. If imposed, it would be the first nationwide ban in Europe.
According to the Order, no one near the business may express approval or disapproval of abortion, pray, hand out literature offering material support to women who might wish an alternative to abortion, or “interfere” with the business’s clients in any way.
Alina Dulgheriu lost her original case in the High Court but was “delighted” that the Court of Appeal will reconsider that decision. She herself changed her mind about having an abortion when she was approached by pro-life activists outside an abortion clinic. She is shocked that the Council had “criminalised charity and attempted to remove dedicated and caring individuals from public space without justification.”
“I cannot imagine a society where a simple offer of help to a woman who might want to keep her child is seen as a criminal offence,” she added. “I refuse to accept that women should be denied the opportunity to receive help where they want to keep their child.”
Although powerful supporters of the UK abortion industry called for similar PSPOs to be imposed across the country, even some pro-abortion British activists protest using PSPOs to shut down freedom. In May 2018, leading LGBT activist Peter Tatchell was among the pro-abortion signatories of a letter to the Times condemning the Ealing Council PSPO.
Last September the British Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced that he would not be imposing nationwide “buffer zones” outside abortion businesses, saying that such a measure “would not be a proportionate response” given the realities of pro-life activism in the UK.
