Safe zones outside abortion clinics come into effect in England and Wales from today –
These are areas within 150 metres of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services.
Under the Public Order Act 2023, it is an offence for someone to, within this area, do anything that intentionally or recklessly influences someone’s decision to use abortion services, obstructs them, or causes harassment, alarm or distress to someone using or working at the premises.
Anyone found guilty of such an offence will face an unlimited fine. The law applies to England and Wales.
Legislation creating buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland, banning any protests or vigils there, came into force last month.
In Northern Ireland, safe access zones at health service locations which offer abortion and birth control services have been in place since September 2023.
A similar measure was in effect outside some clinics in England and Wales but these were enacted by councils, rather than being national legislation.
Known as public spaces protection orders (PSPOs), the first in the UK was enacted by Ealing Council in west London in April 2018, outside the MSI Reproductive Choices Clinic in Mattock Lane.
Campaigners had long made the case for the need for national legislation, arguing that PSPOs depend on local councils’ willingness, are timebound, can be expensive and result in a postcode lottery.
Are the zones being marked out?
There is no requirement within the legislation for the zones to be marked out.
The person suspected of an offence does not have to know or believe they are in a safe access zone, the CPS guidance states.
It is understood local police forces will work with clinics to decide whether signage marking out the zones would be helpful or not.
Campaigners have argued that not allowing silent prayer threatens their rights to freedom of expression and religious belief.
Right To Life UK said the zones will mean ‘vital practical support provided by volunteers outside abortion clinics, which helps to provide a genuine choice, and offers help to women who may be undergoing coercion, will be removed’.
The UK branch of ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) said the right to engage in silent prayer is ‘the most basic of human rights’ and described the enactment of the buffer zones as ‘a watershed moment for British freedoms’.
Heidi Stewart, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), welcomed the zones which, she said, ‘can’t come soon enough’ after years of patients and staff at clinics facing ‘anti-abortion fanatics standing outside clinics for hours’ staring, handing out leaflets and displaying ‘graphic and distressing posters’.
Louise McCudden, from MSI Reproductive Choices, said the new zones will protect women and frontline healthcare workers, adding: ‘Whatever your personal views are on abortion, nobody should be harassed while accessing healthcare.’