Anti-abortion activists have been taking up positions just outside new buffer zones around reproductive health clinics on the first day of a law coming into effect.
The safe access zones – which were initially approved by MPs in May last year – prohibit actions including the handing-out of anti-abortion leaflets within a 150-metre radius around centres in England and Wales.
Pro-choice campaigners and providers also welcomed new Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance issued on Thursday which specifically mentions “holding a vigil, or praying, including silent prayer” within the zones. These actions, along with holding bibles and displaying images of foetuses or babies, were cited as having a potential impact on people accessing abortion services.
“The statute does not provide a defence to those seeking to influence/obstruct/cause harassment etc to people within safe access zones on religious or ethical ground,” the guidance stated.
Under the Public Order Act 2023, it is an offence for someone within the buffer zone to do anything that intentionally or recklessly influences a person’s decision to use abortion services, obstructs them, or causes harassment, alarm or distress to someone using or working at the premises.
While there is an expectation that a legal challenge could be mounted, campaigners including the Labour MP Stella Creasy welcomed what she described as “clear and unequivocal” briefing material issued this week to police.
Kerry Abel, chair of the national pro-choice campaign Abortion Rights, said Thursday marked the beginning of a “changed landscape” and welcomed the mention of silent prayer, which she said had been used as a “cover” for intimidation.
Legislation creating buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland came into force last month, while they have been in place in Northern Ireland since September 2023.
However, while anti-abortion protesters were absent outside some centres where they have maintained a near daily presence, there was evidence that they will continue.
The Guardian spoke to three people with rosary beads and a placard on a street near to a Marie Stopes International (MSI) centre in central London, including a man who said he had “stepped it out” to ensure they were outside a 150-metre radius.
The CPS guidance to prosecutors also noted that a previous supreme court ruling in relation to Northern Ireland “acknowledged that there may arise factual questions of some delicacy” when it comes to some conduct.
“Accordingly, a person who carries out any of these activities within a safe access zone will not necessarily commit a criminal offence. Prosecutors will need to consider not only all the facts and circumstances of the particular conduct but also the context in which the conduct takes place,” it added.
Ailish McEntee, a safeguarding midwife for the abortion provider MSI Reproductive Choices, broadly welcomed the new regulations. “This is really pushing back on the narrative that we are talking about something other than a medical procedure,” she said.
“Having these safe access zones is going to take away the element of immediate harassment and the kind of intimidation tactics that patients and our staff have had to endure. Once we become more familiar with the zones, then we are confident that we can work with them and advise women who are coming to us.”
Conservative and Democratic Unionist party MPs had claimed that the bill which created the buffer zones was leading “to the territory of thought crimes”. But they were defeated when they tabled an amendment designed to ensure that no offence is committed if a person is “engaged in consensual communication or in silent prayer” outside clinics or hospitals offering abortion services.
A similar measure – public spaces protection orders (PSPOs) – has been in effect outside some clinics but these have been enacted by councils, rather than being national legislation.