A British woman arrested near a Birmingham, England abortion center for praying, under a new protest prohibition statute, told Fox News she fears her situation will not be the last in the U.K.
On “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Isabel Vaughan-Spruce said she has long engaged in silent prayer outside clinics, saying dozens of women have accepted her offers of help and go on to continue their pregnancies rather than terminate them as-planned.
She explained to host Tucker Carlson how the anti-protest policy has since been used to include similar behavior at abortion centers.
“In September this year, the local council in Birmingham brought in this censorship zone, this PSPO – formerly these were used for dog fouling and drunken behavior and things like that,” Vaughan-Spruce said. “But they’re now popping up around the country surrounding abortion centers, and they banned behavior like protesting, but it also names prayer and counseling as forms of protesting.”
“Four times, I went and stood near the closed abortion center and silently prayed there. And as you can see, the police came and asked me if I was protesting, which I wasn’t. They asked me if I was praying, and I said I might be silently praying; I was arrested.”
Vaughan-Spruce added authorities detained her in a cell, interrogated her regarding what she was praying about, and was later released on bail with an appearance scheduled for February on four counts of protesting and engaging in an act intimidating of service users.
However, she also said people on both sides of the abortion debate have come to her aid. Even abortion rights advocates, she said, have concerns about the protest law.
source foxnews.com
