by Julian Mann, Christian Today
The case of Anita Meston, the teacher sacked by a secondary school for expressing pro-life views, deepens Britain’s reputation for suppressing Christian freedom of speech.
Leaders in US President Donald Trump’s administration are already very concerned about the UK’s track record. In his historic speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025, Vice President JD Vance said “the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs”.
Vance highlighted the case of Adam Smith-Connor, the army veteran prosecuted for praying silently near an abortion clinic in Bournemouth. Vance’s feelings about this case registered strongly in his remarks.
He said: “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes – not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.
“And after British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied, simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.
“Now, the officers were not moved. Adam was found guilty of breaking the government’s new ‘buffer zones’ law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could ‘influence’ a person’s decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.”
Anita Meston’s legal action for discrimination against Biddick Academy near Sunderland is due to get a preliminary Employment Tribunal hearing on October 16. According to her lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the school sacked her for “expressing pro-life beliefs when honestly answering a question from a student during a lesson”.