Christian Preacher Convicted Over Abortion Clinic Protest In UK

 A 72-year old Christian preacher from South Wales identified as Stephen Green, hss been convicted over a protest he partook in outside a clinic.

Stephen Green had held up a placard with a religious text during his protest in West London in February, with the protest taking place in a so-called buffer zone around the clinic put in place by the local Ealing council, the first in the UK surrounding such a facility.

After complaints from women of intimidation and harassment from anti-abortion groups and protesters, Buffer zones around abortion clinics were brought in across the UK in January 2023.

Green who says his prosecution was an "attack on the Bible and free speech, quoted Psalm 139 which read: "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb."

A judge in Uxbridge, Northwest London, while ruling on Green's conviction on Thursday said he had "pointedly and intentionally" included the words "in my mother's womb" as "an act of protest".

District judge Kathryn Verghis said the words amounted to an "expression of disapproval" of abortion and therefore were in breach of a public spaces protection order used to set up the buffer zone.

Green pleaded not guilty to breaching the order and was ordered to pay £2,426 ($2,640) in court costs and surcharge.

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UK head of external affairs at the charity MSI Reproductive Choices, Louise McCudden, while hailing Green's conviction called on the government to end the geographical game of chance surrounding safe access to clinics.

She said women should be able to find "abortion care safe from harassment" no matter where they lived.