Warning for America After 'Buffer Zone' Law Hits U.K.: 'Absolutely Shocking'

The leader of an organization aimed at defending Christian values is on a mission to target U.K. buffer zones, areas created to prevent protest — and even silent prayer — outside abortion clinics. Andrea Williams, chief executive officer of Christian Concern, a group that works to encourage Christians throughout the U.K., said it's hard for many in the West to imagine such restrictions on free speech.

"Those that are watching this will think, 'Really, has Great Britain created a space where you are unable to speak quietly, unable even to pray, unable even to walk alongside a woman to explain another way when she's in and around an abortion clinic?'" Williams said. "Well, that's come to pass in the United Kingdom."

She said the U.K. has always been a nation bent on championing free speech, freedom of conscience, and the freedom to protest, though recent regulations bringing buffer zones to the entirety of the nation have, in her view, impeded that legacy. "This is something that has slipped in," she said of the buffer laws. "It slipped in under another major act, The Public Order Act of this year, and it's slipped in by way of an amendment."

Williams, who called the process of pushing the buffer zones through "absolutely shocking," continued, "It's actually one of the things that ... tears up one of our fundamental constitutional principles around freedom to speak, freedom to protest, freedom to assemble."

She said these clinic protections don't apply to other such buildings and raised a shocking issue worthy of pondering: what happens if a person's home or private business is within the buffer zone? She pondered whether such an individual or business owner would be free to pray or protest inside his or her residence. So far, she said it's been affirmed these individuals won't be held accountable, though the potential implications certainly seem important in light of the law.