A Christian man in the U.K. has been convicted for silently praying just inside what had been dubbed a “buffer zone” at an abortion clinic in Bournemouth in November 2022.
Adam Smith-Connor, a British military veteran and a father of two, was sentenced Oct. 16, to a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 ($11,500) in costs, BBC reported.
It should be noted the 51-year-old Southhampton man has denied failing to comply with the “buffer zone,” although District Judge Orla Austin said the Christian man’s actions were “deliberate.”
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According to the Alliance Defending Freedom U.K., the legal firm representing Smith-Connor, their client spent roughly three minutes praying silently outside the abortion clinic before a local council officer approached him and inquired about “the nature of his prayers.”
He told them he had previously paid for an abortion for his ex-girlfriend and that he was there to pray for about his deceased son, Jacob.
“I was a bit taken aback by that,” Smith-Connor told CBN News about a year ago, referring to the line of questioning from the officers, noting they told him he “was breaching” the public space protection order. “They informed me that they considered my praying for my deceased son was a breach of the PSPO, that it was an act of disapproval of abortion, although I wasn’t manifesting that prayer in any way and, if I hadn’t told them, they would have no way of knowing what I was praying about.”
About a month later, the Christian man received a fine. After that, legal proceedings were brought against Smith-Conor by the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.
ADF UK Legal Counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole called the ruling a “turning point of immense proportions.”
To read the full story, visit our content partners at Faithwire.
Reprinted with permission from faithwire.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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