British Woman, Priest Acquitted of Charges for Praying Outside Abortion Clinic

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a British woman who was arrested last year for praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, has been formally acquitted of all criminal charges.

The ruling was handed down Thursday morning by Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, according to Alliance Defending Freedom UK, the law firm representing Vaughan-Spruce.

“I’m glad I’ve been vindicated of any wrongdoing. But I should never have been arrested for my thoughts and treated like a criminal simply for silently praying on a public street,” Vaughan-Spruce said in a public statement after the ruling.

Vaughan-Spruce was arrested in December and charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users,” for praying in a censorship zone established by the local city council. Advocates were prohibited from praying, distributing literature, and other activities deemed to foster “anti-social behavior” nearby a local abortion facility.

Vaughan-Spruce was approached by three police officers while standing across the street from the clinic, searched, and ultimately arrested after she conceded that she “might be” silently praying for women undergoing abortions inside.

“When it comes to censorship zones, peaceful prayer and attempts to offer help to women in crisis pregnancies are now being described as either ‘criminal’ or ‘anti-social,'” Vaughan-Spruce said. “But what is profoundly anti-social are the steps now being taken to censor freedom of speech, freedom to offer help, freedom to pray and even freedom to think.”

“We must stand firm against this and ensure that these most fundamental freedoms are protected, and that all our laws reflect this,” she added.

A video capturing Vaughan-Spruce’s encounter with local law enforcement initially circulated and went viral in December. Although authorities dropped the charges against Vaughan-Spruce in early February, she pursued a verdict in court to clear her name.

A local priest, Father Sean Gough, was also acquitted of criminal charges Thursday after he, too, was found praying in the same censorship zone. He had faced a charge of “intimidating service-users” of the abortion clinic after he was found silently holding a sign that read “praying for free speech,” according to ADF UK, which represented him. Gough also had a small “unborn lives matter” bumper sticker on his car parked in the area.

Jeremiah Igunnubole, a lawyer with ADF UK, applauded the ruling after leaving the Birmingham Magistrates’ Court in Birmingham on Thursday. He said the case is “of great cultural significance.”

“This isn’t 1984, but 2023,” he said, adding that “nobody should be criminalized for their thoughts, for their prayers, for peaceful expression on a public street.”