Beginning today, October 31, safe access zones within a 150-meter radius of an abortion facility will be implemented in England and Wales.
It will be illegal to do anything in this location that hinders or harasses clinic users or staff.
The so-called buffer zones in England and Wales were included in legislation that was passed 18 months ago, but their implementation was delayed while debates raged over whether or not quiet prayer should be allowed.
What is the safe access/buffer zone?
The legislation refers to the locations within 150 meters of a clinic or hospital that offers abortion services as buffer zones.
Any action that wilfully or carelessly influences someone's decision to utilise abortion services, obstructs them, or causes harassment, anxiety, or distress to someone using or working at the premises is illegal under the Public Order Act 2023. Anyone convicted of such a crime faces an indefinite fine.
Similar laws have already been in place outside of a few clinics, although they were passed by councils rather than the federal government. In April 2018, the Ealing Council of west London implemented the first public spaces protection order (PSPO) in the UK outside the MSI Reproductive Choices Clinic on Mattock Lane.
In England and Wales, the new protected areas surrounding abortion facilities will not automatically forbid silent prayer.
Police and prosecutors will handle each case individually, making decisions based on the irresponsibility or intent of the parties involved.
Pro-choice activists have demanded that silent prayer be completely prohibited in the zones, claiming that a woman accessing a clinic would feel threatened by the sight of someone standing nearby praying, even if they are not speaking.
How have people reacted?
The new zones will safeguard women and frontline healthcare staff, according to Louise McCudden of MSI Reproductive Choices.
She said: "Whatever your personal views are on abortion, nobody should be harassed while accessing healthcare."
Meanwhile, protesters believe that a prohibition on silent prayer jeopardises their freedom of religion and speech.
The ability to pray in silence is “the most basic of human rights” according to the UK division of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which also called the creation of the buffer zones “a watershed moment for British freedoms”.
What is the public’s attitude towards abortion?
Abortions have been legal in England since 1967 and they are becoming more common.
In 2022, there were 251,377 abortions in England and Wales, which is the most since 1967 and a 17 per cent rise from the year before.
Support for women's access to abortion has only increased, according to frequent, sizeable opinion polls conducted in the nation.
The most recent social attitudes study from the National Centre for Social Research indicates that while support for abortion has grown, it is slightly less popular when there is no health danger.
The percentage of respondents who agreed that a woman should be allowed to have an abortion if she does not want a child increased from 37 per cent in 1983 to 75 per cent in 2022.
This percentage increased to 89 per cent when there was a high likelihood that the unborn child would have a major illness, and 95 per cent when the pregnancy posed a serious risk to the woman's health.
68 per cent think abortion should be permitted when a woman is single and does not want to get married, and 72 per cent think it should be permitted when a couple can't afford to have any more children.
