A pro-life campaigner’s sign offering pregnant women the chance to talk amounted to intimidation and breached an abortion buffer zone, a magistrates court has concluded.
Livia Tossici-Bolt, a retired scientist and member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children’s Bournemouth branch was charged after holding up a ‘here to talk if you want’ sign outside an Bournemouth abortion clinic in March 2023. She told a police officer her sign offered conversation to anyone who approached her voluntarily. That officer did not witness Livia intimidating or harassing anyone but asked her to leave the zone and she refused.
The judge at Poole Magistrates Court said case law was clear that behaviour outside abortion clinics can reasonably be interpreted as opposition or disapproval to abortion. She could have chosen a different location. She was convicted of two breaches of the public spaces protection order, given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20,000 in prosecution costs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom UK, who is supporting Livia’s defence, said: “What has happened to Livia is a grave violation of the basic right to free expression.”
The decision was handed down days after the US State Department, Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) said it was monitoring the case closely amid concerns around freedom of expression in the UK. In response to the decision, the DRL said it was “disappointed” and added: “Freedom of expression must be protected for all.”
Meanwhile, retired pastor Clive Johnston pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaching an abortion buffer zone near Northern Ireland’s Causeway Hospital. He was charged after preaching last summer on John 3:16 at an open air service on a green area on the fringes of the zone. The CI says he did not mention abortion.
His lawyers are to seek a High Court ruling on whether the buffer zones laws outlaw acts of worship that have nothing to do with abortion. The criminal proceedings have been adjourned until 2 May.
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