from Premier
A retired pastor has been convicted of breaching Northern Ireland’s abortion buffer zone laws, having preached an open-air sermon near a hospital.
Clive Johnston, 78 from County Tyrone, shared the message of John 3:16 opposite Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital in July 2024.
The former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland was found guilty of two charges under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act: of “conducting a protest” which could be “influencing a protected person” in a buffer zone; and failing to comply with a direction to leave.
Buffer zones around hospitals in Northern Ireland, and similar laws elsewhere in the UK, are designed to prevent protests or behaviour that could influence people accessing abortion services within a set distance of clinics.
Johnston said he was preaching the gospel and not protesting. Speaking after the verdict, he called it a “dark day for Christian freedom”.
The retired pastor said: “We held a small, open air Sunday service near a hospital. We made no reference whatsoever to the issue of abortion. And yet the buffer zones law is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offence. And at 78 years of age I find myself, for the first time, convicted of a crime.