Safe zones outside abortion clinics are in effect in England and Wales

Safe zones outside abortion clinics come into effect in England and Wales today and harassers will face unlimited fines. 

The new legislation will ban protests, including silent prayer, within a 150-metre zone of a clinic or hospital offering abortion services. 

The former Conservative government told police that silent prayer should be allowed inside the new 'safe access zones'. 

But now new guidance states people within the zones will be banned from trying to influence any woman's decision to have an abortion, stop them from entering, harass them or cause distress. 

The ban includes trying to hand out abortion leaflets, protesting against abortion rights, or shouting at people trying to enter a clinic. 

The Home Office said it may also include silent prayer or 'any behaviour where someone is intentionally trying to – or recklessly acting in a way that might – influence a person accessing the service'. 

Anyone found guilty of breaking the new laws could be hit with an unlimited fine, with police to determine whether the actions meet the threshold for prosecution. 

Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister responsible for safeguarding, said: 'The idea that any woman is made to feel unsafe or harassed for accessing health services, including abortion clinics is sickening. This stops today.' 

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Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said: 'I'm confident that the safeguards we have put in place today will have a genuine impact in helping women feel safer and empowered to access the vital services they need.' 

In October, ex-serviceman Adam Smith-Connor was convicted of breaching the safe zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

Poole Magistrates' Court heard he stood near a tree, with his head bowed and hands clasped as he silently prayed, partially in view of the clinic, and refused to leave the area when asked to do so by a community officer who spoke to him for an hour and 40 minutes.

He had denied failing to comply with the PSPO but was found guilty, with a judge saying what he did was 'deliberate'.

Smith-Connor was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 in court costs and victim surcharge after the legal proceedings brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

ADF UK said it is supporting Smith-Connor with an appeal against his conviction.

In February 2023, a Catholic priest accused the Government of 'censoring the streets of the UK' and attempting to criminalise silent prayer after being cleared of charges claiming he intimidated service users near an abortion clinic.

Charges of failing to comply with a PSPO brought against Father Sean Gough and charity volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce were withdrawn during a hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.

Fr Gough and Ms Vaughan-Spruce criticised the decision to charge them for 'silently praying' and 'praying for free speech', saying they had been put 'on trial for praying in an abortion facility censorship zone'.

What are safe access zones?

These are areas within 150 metres of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services.

Under the Public Order Act 2023, it is an offence for someone to, within this area, do anything that intentionally or recklessly influences someone's decision to use abortion services, obstructs them, or causes harassment, alarm or distress to someone using or working at the premises.

Anyone found guilty of such an offence will face an unlimited fine. The law applies to England and Wales. 

Legislation creating buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland, banning any protests or vigils there, came into force last month.

In Northern Ireland, safe access zones at health service locations which offer abortion and birth control services have been in place since September 2023. 

A similar measure was in effect outside some clinics in England and Wales but these were enacted by councils, rather than being national legislation.

Known as public spaces protection orders (PSPOs), the first in the UK was enacted by Ealing Council in west London in April 2018, outside the MSI Reproductive Choices Clinic in Mattock Lane.

Campaigners had long made the case for the need for national legislation, arguing that PSPOs depend on local councils' willingness, are timebound, can be expensive and result in a postcode lottery. 

Are the zones being marked out? 

There is no requirement within the legislation for the zones to be marked out.

The person suspected of an offence does not have to know or believe they are in a safe access zone, the CPS guidance states.

It is understood local police forces will work with clinics to decide whether signage marking out the zones would be helpful or not.

Campaigners have argued that not allowing silent prayer threatens their rights to freedom of expression and religious belief.

Right To Life UK said the zones will mean 'vital practical support provided by volunteers outside abortion clinics, which helps to provide a genuine choice, and offers help to women who may be undergoing coercion, will be removed'.

The UK branch of ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) said the right to engage in silent prayer is 'the most basic of human rights' and described the enactment of the buffer zones as 'a watershed moment for British freedoms'.

Heidi Stewart, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), welcomed the zones which, she said, 'can't come soon enough' after years of patients and staff at clinics facing 'anti-abortion fanatics standing outside clinics for hours' staring, handing out leaflets and displaying 'graphic and distressing posters'.

Louise McCudden, from MSI Reproductive Choices, said the new zones will protect women and frontline healthcare workers, adding: 'Whatever your personal views are on abortion, nobody should be harassed while accessing healthcare.'