UNITED KINGDOM (Yaakov M /VINnews) — A pro-life woman has been arrested outside an abortion clinic in the United Kingdom. Her alleged crime was the (highly disturbing) act of praying, apparently without even moving her lips.
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Video footage published on Twitter shows police confronting Isabel Vaughan Spruce who stood silently, not calling any attention to herself.
The police ask, “Are you praying?”
“I might be praying in my head,” she responds.
Police in the UK arrest a woman for silently praying:
"Are you praying?"
"I might be praying in my head." pic.twitter.com/7Q8UnKmfa1
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) December 22, 2022
The police then searched her demeaningly, arrested her, and took her to a police station where they interrogated her, and charged her with breaking the Public Space Protection Order by silently praying.
She reportedly has prayed near an abortion clinic on four different occasions in Kings Norton, Birmingham.
“No citizen should be criminalised for legitimate, peaceful activity, even prayer. Isabel’s case demonstrates just how far the state can go if we do not vigilantly guard fundamental rights and freedoms,” Scottish communications officer for ADF UK Lois McLatchie said.
The arrest comes amid anxieties in the USA over a Department of Justice crackdown on pro-life activists in the United States, such as Mark Houck, a pro-life father arrested for allegedly pushing an abortion clinic volunteer who was reportedly bothering his son as they prayed outside the clinic.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has charged almost 30 pro-life activists with “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act” (FACE) violations this year.
The DOJ has been using the FACE Act as a response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Associate Attorney General said earlier this month.
Vanita Gupta, associate attorney general, described the overturn of Roe v. Wade as a “devastating blow to women throughout the country” that took away “the constitutional right to abortion” and increased “the urgency” of the DOJ’s work—including the “enforcement of the FACE Act, to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.”
The FACE Act, which “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.”
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She tells him that she “might be praying” in her head after he explicitly told her she doesn’t have to answer any question.
Looks like she wanted to get arrested to make some noise.
There is probably more to the story.
If everyone, including the editors of VIN, would carefully read the article, the issue is not with this woman’s praying. There is evidently a legal order in place providing a cordon sanitaire around the perimeter of this medical facility. I suspect that she was asked to move by the constables, and refused to do so.
Whether you agree with abortion is not the issue, nor is her praying per se. The issue is her refusing to obey a lawful order of police enforcing the ruling of a judge. She seems to be a chutzpanyak, not a person deprived of her civil rights.
Yes. This is the same Sodomite country that murdered Alta Fixsler. Wicked evil place.
a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?
Sickening beyond words
Whether one is for or against abortion, this is outrageous!
Another once-free country has become a totalitarian state where only approved-speech is permitted.
I don’t think so, she was suspected of breaking into the building.
She also happened to be praying at that moment.
There is no report anywhere whatsoever that says she was arrested for praying
Andrew fjcc Cuomo closed down yeshivas do whats the difference?