Bishop John Keenan has told a Holyrood committee on buffer zones that balancing human rights “shouldn’t mean that something which is a legitimate point of view should be made invisible”.
Speaking against Green MSP Gillian Mackay’s proposed Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill, which might even criminalise silent prayer outside abortion facilities, Bishop Keenan warned MSPs that such a law would introduce thoughtcrime to Scotland, since “silent prayer is tantamount to thought”.
If the Bill is passed, he stated further, it will exclude prayer from the public space and further the notion that religion should be confined to houses of worship, explaining, too, that prayer and “proximity” to its subject are a vital part of Christianity, which “is an incarnational religion”.
In response to MSP Ross Greer’s statement that “[human] rights are conditional”, Bishop Keenan said, “Of the human rights that are absolute… it’s freedom of thought.”
The Vice-President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland added that “the Police don’t want to be in the position of having to police thoughts”, and already have powers to deal with any harassment.
Margeret Akers, representing SPUC at the same hearing, implored MSPs to “consider the ramifications” of criminalising “thought and prayer… an alarming precedent to set”.
Arrests for silent prayer outside abortion facilities have already taken place in England in the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce who was arrested twice, as well as Afghanistan veteran Adam Smith-Connor who awaits trial for praying for his dead son outside a BPAS facility in Bournemouth.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Buffer zones are an affront to free speech and freedom of thought, including the right to pray silently, and could lead to the persecution of Christians as well as people of other faiths, or those of no religion at all, a terrifying prospect.
“MSPs must reject such dangerous and illiberal legislation that, as well as criminalising prayer, will also prevent women from receiving offers of help that could save their babies from abortion.”
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