British police still have not decided whether to charge pro-life advocate Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, 10 months after opening a new investigation into her for silently praying outside an abortion facility.
In a Nov. 30 X post, Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic, noted that police typically take about two days to make a charging decision in such cases, “but ten months later I’m still waiting to hear whether I’ll be charged for silent prayers on a public street.”
The unusually long delay has reignited national debate over the United Kingdom’s expanding “buffer zone” laws, which ban attempts to influence a woman’s decision to abort her child within roughly 500 feet of an abortion facility.
Vaughan-Spruce gained national attention in December 2022 after Birmingham officers arrested her for silently praying inside a local “buffer zone,” according to the Telegraph. When asked if she was praying, Vaughan-Spruce told police she “might be praying in her head.” Her case was later dismissed after no evidence of a crime was found.
She was arrested again just weeks later for silent prayer and was acquitted a second time, as CatholicVote previously reported. Police ultimately apologized and paid her £13,000 (about $16,125) for violating her human rights.
The legal landscape shifted in October 2024, when a national “safe access zones” law took effect. The law criminalizes “intentionally or recklessly” influencing abortion decisions or causing “harassment, alarm, or distress” within roughly 500 feet of any abortion facility across England or Wales. According to the Telegraph, there is no formal ruling on whether silent prayer qualifies as an offense, but government guidance indicates it should not.
Still, in March 2025, Vaughan-Spruce was informed that she was again under investigation under the new national law — even after her previous arrests were deemed unlawful. Vaughan-Spruce’s case has now been pending for a lengthy 10 months.
“Despite being fully vindicated multiple times after being wrongfully arrested for my thoughts, it’s unbelievable that I have been repeatedly interrogated and harassed by police for silently praying in that area, and yet again find myself under a lengthy investigation,” Vaughan-Spruce told the Telegraph.
As CatholicVote reported earlier this year, an officer confronted her in February, claiming her “mere presence” was “causing people harassment, harm, and distress.”
“Silent prayer cannot possibly be a crime — everyone has the right to freedom of thought,” she told the outlet. “The punishment in my case has clearly been the process.”
Vaughan-Spruce has volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center for two decades and co-directed March for Life UK. She prays outside abortion facilities on a weekly basis, CatholicVote reported.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International’s legal counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole, whose organization represents Vaughan-Spruce in her legal challenges, said police appear “frozen in indecision” over whether they can prosecute “somebody’s silent prayers,” according to the Telegraph.
He added that the delays and legal uncertainty were “entirely foreseeable.”
“Buffer-zone legislation is so broadly drafted that police officers, prone to ideological pressure, routinely misinterpret the Christian practice of prayer near abortion facilities as inherently criminal in nature,” he said, according to the outlet. “That premise is not supported by evidence and is incompatible with long-established principles of English law.”
“Once we permit the state to criminalise thought and prayer today,” Igunnubole concluded, “broader categories of unpopular but lawful speech become vulnerable tomorrow.”
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