ADF International
CV NEWS FEED // A local council in the United Kingdom that has spent nearly £150,000 to prosecute two pro-lifers was grappling with a £44 million funding gap in 2024, according to a March 8 report from The Telegraph.
“In a free country, citizens shouldn’t have to prepare a budget to defend the peaceful exercise of fundamental rights. … The council’s ideological drive is clear, that they would charge the public purse such exorbitant costs to criminalise particular views,” stated Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom UK. The legal organization has backed both pro-lifers’ cases.
The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council has collectively spent £150,000 (the equivalent of almost $164,000) taking UK army veteran Adam Smith-Connor and retired medical scientist Livia Tossici-Bolt to court to challenge the pro-life expressions they made near an abortion facility, according to the Telegraph. Any pro-life expressions within designated “buffer zones” are considered a violation of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).
The Telegraph reports that the BCP council’s decision to prosecute both citizens “came at a time when it was facing significant financial pressure.” In 2023 BCP officials had been struggling to determine ways to save money, including considering turning off street lights, according to the Telegraph. The next year, the council had to work with the multi-euro funding gap.
According to the Telegraph, a spokesman for the BCP council said that employing a lawyer for these cases was necessary.
“The Council will continue to monitor any alleged breaches of this PSPO and take appropriate action when it is deemed necessary,” the spokesman added.
The BCP council brought legal charges against Smith-Connor after he prayed silently near an abortion facility on November 24, 2022. That day, after he had been near the facility for about three minutes, authorities approached and asked him what he was doing. He said he was praying for his deceased son who had been killed by abortion years earlier.
In December 2022, Smith-Connor received a fine in the mail because he had prayed within the buffer zone, as CatholicVote previously reported. The legal case that ensued has dragged on, and he was convicted of the “crime” of violating the zone in October 2024. Still, the case has not fully concluded. Smith-Connor’s appeal date of this ruling is set for late July.
By October 2024, the BCP council had spent £93,000 prosecuting Smith-Connor, according to the Telegraph.
Just last month, Tossici-Bolt was accused of violating the PSPO because she had held a sign that read “here to talk if you want” outside of the same abortion facility Smith-Connor had been near. Tossici-Bolt engaged in conversations with several women who came up and spoke with her. The BCP council has spent nearly £45,000 prosecuting her, according to the Telegraph.
The Telegraph reports that Igunnubole emphasized that the council’s actions against the pro-life citizens are in conflict with the right to free speech.
“Free speech is truly in crisis in Britain,” Igunnbole said.
