The return of silent prayer in front of German abortion facilities reaffirms fundamental rights.
The return of silent prayer in front of German abortion facilities reaffirms fundamental rights.
E very day seems to bring a new challenge for post-Roe America. Emergent lawsuits seek to prevent smartphone data from revealing abortion-clinic visits. Upcoming elections in many states promise to be highly charged referendums on abortion access. And increasing violence by way of attacks on crisis-pregnancy centers makes clear that we are engaged in the fight of our lives.
Another sinister reality that we have so far been spared? The battle to ban silent prayer in front of abortion facilities. Thanks to the robust freedoms that Americans enjoy, and diligently protect, we have yet to see the day when we are stopped from holding a life-affirming sign in front of our local Planned Parenthood, much less restricted from gathering to pray, peacefully and silently. Not so in Europe. Americans, take heed.
Take the case of the 40 Days for Life group in Pforzheim, Germany, banned since 2019 from praying outside a local abortion-referral center, Pro Familia, an International Planned Parenthood affiliate. So threatened was it by the silent rosaries of prayerful citizens committed to the protection of unborn life, the center asked the group to relocate its twice-yearly vigil across the street. The pro-lifers complied, and even after monitoring from the police, no violations were found.
No women were harassed or endangered — there are clear laws prohibiting that, anyway. This was men, women, and children alike offering prayers in the silence of their hearts for women in a vulnerable situation and their unborn children. Proving that rosaries indeed are seen as more dangerous than firebombs for the ideologically misguided, the local municipality banned the gatherings in the vicinity of the abortion facility altogether.
Local 40 Days for Life leader Pavica Vojnović took the case to court in defense of fundamental freedoms. After a lower court failed to condemn the ban as an overt violation of the basic human rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and opinion, Vojnović appealed, and she saw victory in court on August 25. Three and a half years since the ban first came down, finally, the court has reaffirmed the freedom to pray on the public street of one’s choosing.
“It is a great relief that the court has recognized our fundamental freedoms,” noted Vojnović, ever the peaceful prayer warrior, who endured great personal cost to protect free expression in her hometown. The silencing of pro-life expression, including prayer, is a recurring problem across Europe. The German win follows a recent, and similarly arduous, victory for U.K. grandmother Rosa Lalor, who was arrested while out walking and silently praying near an abortion facility in Liverpool during the Covid lockdown. The prosecution dropped all charges, only after a protracted legal ordeal.
When the government starts policing silent prayer wherever it deems it inappropriate, then we enter the realm of the state as arbiter of thought crimes — a frightening proposition for us all.
The freedoms to think and pray, and express our ideas, both individually and as a collective, are at the core of a free democracy. As noted in the German court judgment, “The special significance of the freedom of assembly . . . is necessary for a free democratic order.” Ignoring the fundamental human rights inherent to each and every one of us spells disaster for any freedom-loving society.
The lifting of the German prayer ban around abortion-referral facilities confirms what we already know: In a democratic society, we all have the right to peaceful assembly and expression, including silent prayer, on the public street. This is a clear victory not just for 40 Days for Life, but also for all concerned with the protection of fundamental human rights — but let’s not underestimate how frighteningly close the citizens of Pforzheim came to losing the right to peacefully pray for the protection of unborn lives in the place of their choosing.
Americans may dismiss this as a far-off happening in a society with less robust protections for free speech, but lest we get complacent, remember censorship isn’t unique to Europe at all. As we grapple with a shifting abortion landscape, now is the time to defend without reserve our rights to peaceful expression — the right to think about, pray for, and express our hopes and dreams for a pro-life future.