What were you thinking? Is a question that’s taken quite a chilling turn in today’s Britain. 

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was standing motionless, silently, when police approached her. They asked her what she was doing. 

I might be praying inside my head, she replied. 

It was enough.  

Isabel was deemed to have broken a Public Space Protection Order (‘PSPO’) – a censorial zone around an abortion facility in which local authorities banned any expression of “approval or disapproval” of abortion, including through prayer. For that, she was arrested and searched. Disturbingly, they even searched her hair. Perhaps they thought she was hiding her silent prayers in there.  

It’s not North Korea – it’s Great Britain

She was brought to a police station and interrogated about what she had prayed in her mind, and when. For Isabel, it’s hard to keep track. Sometimes, she was praying sometimes she was thinking other things. All of her thoughts are harmless, imperceptible and most of all, legal. Yet Isabel was charged for repeatedly praying in her mind, deemed to have broken the PSPO four times and now faces court in February. 

To be clear, the PSPO does not ban presence – it is, after all, a public space.  The restriction is instead targeted at the subject of abortion itself. Assuming a loud climate change protester stood next to Isabel whilst she was standing there silently, under the PSPO  the police would only have arrested Isabel specifically because her cause is directed to God on the topic of abortion. Or let’s imagine for a moment that Isabel did more than stand in one place and actually visibly kneeled down to pray, if she was joined by an activist ‘taking the knee’ for BLM, the PSPO would allow the police to walk past the BLM activist and arrest Isabel, despite both engaging in precisely the same conduct. 

You could forgive Orwell for being confused, but this is 2022, not 1984. It’s not North Korea – it’s Great Britain, the home of the Magna Carta. Nobody should be criminalised for their thoughts. If Orwell were still alive, one wonders if he’d be scratching his head about why, despite the devastating precision of his predictions, there is relatively little alarm, shock and worry across society. I suspect his resolve to persuade would have led to at least an attempt to coin an even more hard hitting book, ‘2084’ perhaps, with the vague hope that, may be, some may see the urgent need to utilise their remaining freedoms before they fade into the annals of history, only to be studied by their children.   

These good activities would be criminally banned by censorship zones

But even Orwell, I suspect, would be discouraged by the seeming illiberal tenacity of Parliament which continues to roll out speech restricting laws despite all parties having manifesto commitments to champion speech or protect fundamental rights. The most recent development sees parliament introducing legislation to roll out similar the censorship zones used to arrest Isabel to abortion facilities across the UK. 

Clause 9 of the Public Order Bill, currently making its way through parliament, would make it illegal to “inform”, “advise”, “persuade”, “occupy space” or even “express opinion” outside abortion facilities. It’s promoted as a bill that will end harassment against women going into abortion facilities. Of course harassment should be banned – not only there, but everywhere. Thankfully, it’s already criminalised and prosecutable.  

A 2018 government review found that while harassment is rare, the most common activities outside abortion facilities is silent or quiet prayer, or offers of charitable help to women who would like to continue their pregnancies if they have financial or practical support. These good activities would be criminally banned by censorship zones; those who perpetrate them, prosecuted. 

Isabel has long been giving her time to charities that support mothers in need of help to continue their pregnancies, and also counseling women who are struggling from the consequences of having been through abortions themselves. This time, she was just praying.  

MPs have an opportunity in January to debate the legislation again that would roll these buffer zones out across the country. It’s essential that they remember Isabel when they do so. The far-reaching and disproportionate consequences of censorship zones are the most illiberal this country has ever seen. 

Nobody should be criminalised for their thoughts.