In February, police in Scotland arrested 74-year-old grandmother Rose Docherty for holding a sign within 200 meters of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital that read, "Coercion is a crime; here to talk, only if you want."
She was detained for several hours before being charged and released on bail.
British Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was convicted in October 2024 for silently praying near an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, where his unborn son had been killed years earlier. The court found Smith-Connor guilty of a "disapproval of abortion" despite him only thinking about his son.
Smith-Connor is a man who served 20 years in the Army Reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan, defending the freedoms that UK authorities are now systematically undermining.
For his service, he received a conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £9,000 ($12,000+) U.S. Dollars in prosecution costs.
In February, while in Munich for his Security Conference Speech, Vice President JD Vance addressed the situation.
"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. I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no."
Vance then mentioned Scotland's Safe Access Zones Act, which created 200-meter buffer zones. The government warned residents, “that even private prayer within their own homes might be considered breaking the law.”
He then correctly added, "In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat."