by Josie Appleton, spiked
Abortion clinic ‘buffer zones’ have become tools of thought control.
Pro-life activist Livia Tossici-Bolt was convicted earlier this month for standing outside an abortion clinic with a sign reading: ‘Here to talk, if you want.’ She was fined £20,000 for twice breaching the clinic’s ‘buffer zone’.
Tossici-Bolt’s case proved so shocking that it caught the attention of US vice-president JD Vance and the US State Department. Last month, the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour wrote on X that it was ‘monitoring her case’ and reiterated that ‘it is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression’.
Her arrest and conviction was a result of Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs). These are powers that allow councils to restrict just about any activity of their choosing. My last national survey of these powers for Manifesto Club in 2023 found that five councils in England and Wales had used a PSPO to create so-called buffer zones around abortion clinics. In every case, these restricted not only obstruction or harassment, but also anything that could be construed as someone expressing their opinion on abortion.
The PSPO in Ealing, London, for example, bans ‘engaging in any act of approval / disapproval or attempted act of approval / disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means’, including ‘prayer or counselling’. It also bans ‘displaying any text or images relating directly or indirectly to the termination of pregnancy’. This law has led to a man in a wheelchair being arrested for praying outside a clinic and to another man being fined over £7,500 for displaying a line from scripture.