CNA Newsroom, Oct 18, 2022 / 10:21 am (CNA).
A council in England has made making the sign of the cross and prayer illegal in public areas around an abortion provider.
The Council of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole in southern England has drawn red lines around an abortion provider and designated the area a “safe zone.” Anyone caught crossing themselves, reciting Scripture, or sprinkling holy water behind these red lines can be fined £100 (about $113) or risk a court conviction.
The prominent Catholic convert Gavin Ashenden wrote on Twitter: “Bournemouth 2022. It is now illegal to cross yourself. Stop for a moment and think about the implications….”
Bournemouth 2022. It is now. illegal to cross yourself. Stop for a moment and think about the implications…. pic.twitter.com/4gqnaXGpha
— Gavin Ashenden (@gavinashenden) October 16, 2022
One Twitter user responded to Ashenden’s tweet, saying: “This is such explicit anti-religious, anti-Christian animus.”
In a press release published on Oct. 11, the council said the decision to enforce a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) was made following a public consultation. A PSPO is intended to stop anti-social behavior.
There were 2,241 responses to the consultation. Seventy-five percent of respondents supported the principle of a PSPO being implemented, while 24% did not support it, the council’s media release said.
“Whilst we acknowledge the right of anyone to conduct a peaceful protest, we had to balance this against the distress caused or likely to be caused, and the detrimental impact of behaviours experienced by those accessing medical services or doing their jobs,” Councillor Bobbie Dove said in the statement.
The order has been in force since Oct. 13 and will remain in place for three years.
Under penalty provided by the PSPO, the council forbids a number of behaviors from Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., including “vigils where members audibly pray, recite Scripture, genuflect, sprinkle holy water on the ground or cross themselves if they perceive a service-user is passing by.”
Further prohibited behaviors include protesting, which can include ”prayer or counselling,” but also the intimidation and harassment of clinic staff, as well as the display of “text or images relating directly or indirectly to the termination of pregnancy and or playing or using amplified music, voice or audio recordings.“
CNA contacted the Diocese of Portsmouth but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The council’s prohibition is not the only thing some pro-lifers are concerned about.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children drew attention to findings of an inspection report into the Bournemouth abortion facility that identified numerous problems.
The 30-page inspection report by the Care Quality Commission, an independent regulator, found that the abortion center, run by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), “did not always ensure the correct legal documentation was completed” before surgical abortions were undertaken.
Moreover, the review said the Bournemouth BPAS facility “did not always provide care and treatment following current national guidance to ensure pregnancy remains were treated with respect.”
A representative of the facility was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children on Oct. 13 said: “BPAS’s callous disregard of the bodily remains of aborted babies has been exposed in yet another damning investigation.”
The push for so-called “safe zones” around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth is not an isolated case.
Right to Life U.K. said on Oct. 9 that a “censorship zone in Manchester will deny pregnant women emotional and practical support.”
The U.K. government has acknowledged that the human right to freedom of religion or belief is guaranteed under international law.
Per its own guidance, this includes “not just the freedom to hold personal thoughts and convictions, but also being able to express them individually or with others, publicly or in private.”
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Although I believe Tesla is going to pay for cross state travels for terminations (please correct if this is incorrect) Musk stating we’re going to end up being a nation of adults in diapers is not too far fetched. Looks at what is going on across the seas here and elsewhere.
I doubt if the late Queen would have approved of such tyranny.
The head of the council must be Beelzebub.
“Whilst we acknowledge the right of anyone to conduct a peaceful protest, we had to balance this against the distress caused or likely to be caused, and the detrimental impact of behaviours experienced by those accessing medical services or doing their jobs…”
That is not a balance but a thorough bias on one side and the council here acknowledges nothing.
The whole idea of a free speech protest is to engage the mind and eventually the heart. The idea of ‘hurt feelings’ and emotional ‘distress’ is the point in the service of truth. Especially in this fight for life. Where is their credible argument here? To muffle and prohibit in the name of ‘reasonableness’ is nothing more than a flight from truth.
Sadly, and once again, England takes the wide road.
Fine. Then the true Catholics of Bournemouth should literally “toe the line” holding crucifixes and praying the rosary while facing toward the slaughter center. Obey the council’s law and turn it against them.
But this is not surprising in a country that pretty much committed wholesale apostasy. Nothing good has ever or will ever come from the heresy of Protestantism. (Just don’t say that around the heresiarch Bergoglio or his minions; they will “cancel” you.
Hard to say much more than the truth……..this is suppression of religion in general and christianity in particular. It is disgusting and the brits should be ashamed. People who are disturbed by the prayers of others to the extent they need “protection”,actually need a mental exam.
Or an exorcism.
The ultimate irony is that these murderers of the innocent know Truth is explicitly expressed through the Sign of the Cross, Perfect Love of all life prayed under the mantle of the Queen of Heaven in the Holy Rosary, and that the demons detest and flee Holy Water. Even for a brief moment, this may enable an overwrought woman in a crisis pregnancy to experience illumination of conscience and nurture her child instead of killing him or her. Pray and witness! Hoping hundreds come forward to that grisly death mill now.
Well said!
Right on Pat! And the unmitigated lying gall they have to put up a sign saying “SAFE ZONE.” Is a butcher shop SAFE for the animals? Is an abortoir (mine) SAFE for a fetus? “SAFE ZONE – UNLESS YOU ARE A FETUS” is apropos.
Ah, England, once the cradle of liberty for the West. Now (to evoke Ezra Pound), an old b______ gone in the teeth, a botched civilization.”