{"id":301814,"date":"2023-11-19T09:03:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T15:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=301814"},"modified":"2023-11-16T20:12:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T02:12:44","slug":"uk-army-vet-thought-crime-silent-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-army-vet-thought-crime-silent-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Army vet decries plan to prosecute him for &#8216;thoughtcrime&#8217; of silent prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A United Kingdom Army veteran who is facing criminal charges for silently praying outside an abortion facility has released a statement warning others that their basic freedoms are in danger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adam Smith-Connor <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">received a fine in December of 2022 for allegedly violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in Bournemouth. In a video of his interaction, he can be heard telling the police that he is standing there &#8220;praying for my son, who is deceased.&#8221; Though Smith-Connor&#8217;s actions were non-violent and non-confrontational, and he was simply praying to himself, he now faces criminal charges for this action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hjUphe7mktE?si=oyL7aqwzVP6T_HbJ\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/adf.uk\/support-adam\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alliance Defending Freedom U.K.<\/a>, Smith-Connor paid for the abortion of his first son many years ago, before converting to Christianity. He now prays outside the abortion facility for his son and all the children and mothers affected by abortion. He purposely prays with his back to the facility, so as not to give any impression that he is trying to engage with the women entering or leaving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In August, Smith-Connor was <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-man-criminal-charges-silent-prayer-abortion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">formally charged<\/a> with breaking the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cbuffer zone\u201d ordinance. He pled not guilty to the charges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou might think this is a story from Orwell\u2019s 1984 \u2013 but in fact this is happening in England in 2023,\u201d Adam Smith-Connor said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/adf.uk\/army-veteran-thoughtcrime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> released on November 9<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cThoughtcrimes\u2019 shouldn\u2019t be prosecuted in the UK.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBritain has a history of upholding human rights we can be proud of, and a respect for freedom that I fought to uphold when I served this country for twenty years in the army reserves, including in Afghanistan,\u201d he went on. \u201cI fought to defend our freedoms \u2013 but now my own freedom of thought is in jeopardy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHow can we send our troops out to potentially make the ultimate sacrifice when back home, police are arresting people for peacefully practicing their faith and offering charitable support to families in crisis?\u201d he added. <\/span>\u201cThis Sunday is Remembrance Sunday. We remember the war dead by upholding the freedoms for which they sacrificed themselves. Sadly, today, we are in danger of dismantling the values for which they died.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, noted that Smith-Connor was targeted simply because he told the police officers that he was praying for his deceased son. \u201cIf Adam had been thinking about an issue other than abortion \u2013 for example, climate change \u2013 then there would be no issue raised here,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smith-Connor&#8217;s next hearing was originally scheduled for November 16 but was postponed until January 18, 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/walgreens-cvs-petition\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-283198\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--700x180.jpg\" alt=\"Walgreens CVS banner\" width=\"700\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--700x180.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--300x77.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--768x197.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--500x128.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A United Kingdom Army veteran who is facing criminal charges for silently praying outside an abortion facility has released a statement warning others that their basic freedoms are in danger. Adam Smith-Connor received a fine in December of 2022 for allegedly violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in Bournemouth. In a video of his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":301842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2793,5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UK Army vet decries plan to prosecute him for &#039;thoughtcrime&#039; of silent prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cI fought to defend our freedoms \u2013 but now my own freedom of thought is in jeopardy,&quot; said Adam Smith-Connor.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-army-vet-thought-crime-silent-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK Army vet decries plan to prosecute him for &#039;thoughtcrime&#039; 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