A Roman Catholic woman is being prosecuted in Northern Ireland for praying inside an abortion clinic buffer zone.
Claire Brennan was arrested outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine last October where she had been saying The Lord’s Prayer and holding up a sign that said ‘Pray to End Abortion’. Her colleague, David Hall, was also arrested.
If found guilty of breaching the hospital’s ‘safe access zone’, she faces a fine and up to six months in prison.
The Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which is supporting her challenge against prosecution, said it was the first case of its kind in Northern Ireland, which last year brought in nationwide buffer zones outside abortion clinics. The buffer zones ban prayer, distributing literature, and offering help to women within a 100 to 250m radius of clinics.
In footage of her arrest, an officer tells Mrs Brennan that she is “really stubborn and ignorant” for breaking the law by refusing to move on.
Ahead of the hearing last Tuesday, Mrs Brennan said it was “deeply disturbing” that the law “tells free citizens that they will be arrested if they pray”.
She said that people should be free to pray anywhere in Northern Ireland “even outside of an abortion clinic”.
“The expansion of abortion services in Northern Ireland in recent years has been appalling. Our laws, beliefs and culture on upholding and protecting life in this country have been trampled on,” she said.
“We need urgent change to roll back what has happened in this country and to uphold God’s law not man’s law. The unborn are the most vulnerable and at risk in our society and we have forgotten our moral duty to do everything we can to protect their lives and to provide vulnerable mothers with alternatives to abortion.
“The legislation discriminates against Christian beliefs and their expression. If we are not free to express prayer against abortion outside of a clinic without being criminalised, then none of us are free.
“I believe I have done absolutely nothing wrong. If the courts find that I have and decide to convict me then we are in a very dark place indeed.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “In Northern Ireland, it has been shown that laws restricting abortion saved more than 100,000 lives in the years from 1967 to 2016.
“For more than 50 years, the law in Northern Ireland only permitted abortion if it was necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman. The 1967 Abortion Act in England and Wales, which is widely interpreted to permit abortion on request, was not extended to NI.
“Since that law changed in March 2020, there has been a two and a half times increase in the annual number of abortions. This is a tragedy, and anyone who cares about protecting life should be especially concerned by what has happened in Northern Ireland in recent years.
“Buffer zones are an oppressive part of the current culture which force consent and silence dissent. The saddest thing of all is that we are actually talking about human lives.
“We stand with Claire as she fights for justice and believe the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023 must be repealed.”
