By Madalaine Elhabbal

Washington, DC Newsroom, October 31, 2024 / 4:10 p.m.

A national law on “buffer zones” came into force on Thursday October 31 in England and Wales, banning protests outside abortion centers.

On the day the new law was implemented, the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) published new guidance which clarifies that silent prayer in an abortion buffer zone is “not necessarily” a crime, according to a press release of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK.

The implementation of the National Buffer Zone Law comes more than a year after Parliament passed the Public Order Act 2023. new law makes it an offense to “interfere with the decision of any person to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services” within 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) of an abortion facility criminal.

The law also makes it illegal to do anything that “causes harassment or distress to anyone using or working on those premises.”

Previously, buffer zones were only applied in five UK municipalities. Penalties for violating the public order law can be up to six months in prison and unlimited fines.

The law was the subject of controversy and debate within parliamentary chambers for months before its implementation due to questions surrounding what could be construed as harassment after several pro-life protesters were prosecuted for prayed silently outside abortion clinics.

Prior to the CPS clarification, ADF UK had launched a petition to British Prime Minister Kier Starmer last week, who collected nearly 60,000 signaturesasking him to refrain from passing the law, which the petition said was responsible for “creating thoughtcrime,” citing the arrests of individuals who prayed silently outside abortion clinics.

Pro-life campaigner Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of March for Life UK, called the decision to pass the law a “national disgrace”.

Similarly, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) of the United Kingdom described the occasion of the passage of the Act as “a day of shame for England and Wales” and “a frightening moment in British history.”

Army veteran and pro-life protester Adam Smith-Connor, who was recently convicted of silent prayer, also took to social media in light of the implementation of the new law with a statement video.

“As buffer zones are deployed across the country and the CPS guidelines accept that silent prayer is ‘not necessarily’ a criminal offence, I am pleased to confirm that I am appealing my conviction,” he said. he declared in a message on X.

Smith-Connor was found guilty on October 16 after Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council accused him of praying in the buffer zone of an abortion clinic.

Madalaine Elhabbal is a Catholic News Agency reporter based in EWTN’s Washington, DC bureau. She has been published by CatholicVote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She graduated from Benedictine College.