A Christian pro-life activist has been awarded £13,000 from police after she was arrested twice for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the director of the anti-abortion March for Life UK group, successfully forced the payout from the West Midlands Police after she accused the force of violating her human rights, wrongful arrest, and assault and battery over an intrusive search during one of her arrests.
The Christian anti-abortion activist was first arrested in November of 2022 for silently praying in a so-called “buffer zone,” an area surrounding an abortion clinic, around which local authorities instituted a Public Spaces Protection Order prohibiting protests and the expression of any “approval or disapproval with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means.”
While Vaughan-Spruce, supported by the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom UK, was acquitted of all charges in February 2023, she was arrested again weeks later for the same offence. Footage of the arrest went viral as an officer was heard saying: “You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offence.”
However, charges were dropped again following an intervention from then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who wrote to the police force to say that silent prayer is “not unlawful.”
Commenting on her £13,000 payout from the police on Monday, the activist said: “Silent prayer is not a crime. Nobody should be arrested merely for the thoughts they have in their heads – yet this happened to me twice at the hands of the West Midlands Police, who explicitly told me that ‘prayer is an offence’.
“There is no place for Orwell’s Thought Police in 21st-century Britain, and thanks to legal support I received from ADF UK, I’m delighted that the settlement that I have received today acknowledges that.
“Yet, despite this victory, I am deeply concerned that this violation could be repeated at the hands of other police forces. Our culture is shifting towards a clampdown on viewpoint diversity, with Christian thought and prayer increasingly under threat of censorship.”
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said per the Daily Mail: “A Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) was introduced by Birmingham City Council in 2022 to deter protesters and protect the public from intimidation that their presence causes following numerous complaints from residents in Station Road, Kings Norton dating back to 2021.
“A member of the public who had been arrested on suspicion of breaching the PSPO subsequently made a civil claim for unlawful arrest, assault and a breach of their human rights. We have now settled that claim without any admission of liability.”
While the payout represents a victory for the cause of religious liberty and freedom of speech in Britain, it comes as the new left-wing Labour Party government is reportedly considering measures to formally criminalise silent prayer outside abortion clinics on a national level.
Former Conservative Cabinet minister Lord David Frost said: “It is incredible that people have been arrested for thought crime in modern Britain. I am very glad Ms Vaughan-Spruce has received compensation for her unjust arrest for this so-called offence.
“But if a recent report is correct that the government is considering formally criminalising silent prayer outside abortion centres, then there will be further such cases, and then not just freedom of speech but freedom of thought will be under threat. It is hard to imagine a more absurd and dangerous situation.
“It would be much better to stick to the sensible approach in the previous Home Secretary’s draft guidance, which proposed a much better balance between the various competing rights and interests. If the government scraps it, then it will be clear to all that its commitment to civil liberties and fundamental freedoms is paper thin.”