Pro-life campaigner launches legal challenge of Public Spaces Protection Order creating buffer zone around abortion clinic
A Christian legal campaign group is supporting a statutory review of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council's (BCP Council) decision to introduce a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) banning activists from demonstrating outside an abortion clinic.
According to the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), the PSPO has created a 150 metre buffer zone in which pro-life demonstrators are prohibited from prayer, reading from the Bible, making the sign of the cross, or providing counselling to women attending the clinic.
The CLC also claim that the demonstrators – who are part of a group named '40 Days for Life Bournemouth' – could face a six month prison sentence for sprinkling ‘holy water’ outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Group’s (BPAS) clinic in Bournemouth.
While the group has been prohibited from demonstrating, Livia Tossici-Bolt, who leads the group, continues to gather near the clinic with a sign reading: "Pregnant? Need Help?".
Tossici-Bolt is bringing the legal challenge with the support of the CLC, and is set to argue the council did not have the power to make the PSPO because officials wrongly sought to prohibit peaceful and lawful behaviour which cannot properly be characterised as “anti-social”, and for which there is no evidence.
Furthermore, she will claim that the PSPO is "disproportionate" and interferes with her human rights under Article 9, 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
She will seek a declaration from the High Court that the PSPO is unlawful, unjustified and an interference with her and other pro-lifers’ rights.
Tossici-Bolt's claim comes a month after the CLC launched a separate legal challenge against Birmingham City Council over its decision to implement a similar buffer zone around an abortion clinic.
The claimant in the Birmingham case is making the claim under analogous grounds to those BCP Council faces, although they will also argue that the Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police was not properly consulted on the proposals.
A BCP Council spokesperson said: “The PSPO (Public Space Protection Order) came into effect on 13 October 2022 in the area directly surrounding the BPAS Clinic on Ophir Road, Bournemouth. It is in operation Monday to Friday, between the hours of 7am – 7pm, to cover the opening times of the clinic.
“The Council can confirm that it has recently received notice of a legal challenge to this Order. The Council is seeking legal advice and considering its position.”
Adam Carey
