{"id":298773,"date":"2023-09-16T15:29:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T20:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=298773"},"modified":"2023-09-15T14:01:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T19:01:42","slug":"british-home-secretary-silent-prayer-not-unlawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/british-home-secretary-silent-prayer-not-unlawful\/","title":{"rendered":"British Home Secretary informs UK police that ‘silent prayer… is not unlawful’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

In March of this year, the British parliament passed a measure making it illegal to silently pray outside abortion facilities. Now, a recent letter from the British Home Secretary Suella Braverman may make that law moot, as Braverman instructed<\/a> the country’s police forces that \u201csilent prayer, within itself, is not unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braverman’s letter also clarified that \u201cholding lawful opinions, even if those opinions may offend others, is not a criminal offence.\u201d The letter is widely understood to reference the country’s buffer zone law.<\/p>\n

With its “buffer zone” law, the United Kingdom outlawed all forms of pro-life activity \u2013 including silent prayer \u2013 outside the country\u2019s abortion facilities. Since that time, several people have been arrested for \u201cthought crime,\u201d including Fr. Sean Gough<\/a><\/span>, an <\/span>army veteran<\/span><\/a> named <\/span>Adam Smith-Connor<\/span>, and Isabel Vaughn-Spruce<\/a>, director of March for Life UK. All three were standing silently and peacefully at the time of their arrest, with Vaughan-Spruce telling police she “might” be praying.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vaughan-Spruce welcomed news of the letter. \u201cIt is not for the Government to determine my beliefs on abortion, my beliefs that women deserve better support, nor police the faith that I hold in my own mind,” she said<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m delighted to see the Home Secretary clarify to police that it is not a crime to pray inside your own mind. This is a basic tenet of a free democracy \u2013 yet I have been arrested twice for doing no more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom UK, which has represented all three in their criminal charges, also praised news of the letter.<\/p>\n

“The government’s focus on restoring common sense to British policing is welcome and long overdue,” said<\/a> Jeremiah Igunnubole, the group’s legal counsel. “Too often, of late, arrests have been justified by reference to subjective notions of offence rather than an objective application of the law. Politicised policing seriously threatens democracy, which relies on the right to freedom of speech and free and frank exchange of viewpoints to be effectively realised.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March of this year, the British parliament passed a measure making it illegal to silently pray outside abortion facilities. Now, a recent letter from the British Home Secretary Suella Braverman may make that law moot, as Braverman instructed the country’s police forces that \u201csilent prayer, within itself, is not unlawful.\u201d Braverman’s letter also clarified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":298796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7,5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBritish Home Secretary informs UK police that 'silent prayer... is not unlawful'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Braverman's letter also said \u201cholding lawful opinions, even if those opinions may offend others, is not a criminal offence."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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