Preacher in London court over abortion clinic protest
A 72-year-old Christian preacher appeared in a London court on Friday for allegedly breaching an order banning protests outside an abortion clinic.
Stephen Green denies breaking a public spaces protection order outside MSI Reproductive Choices clinic in west London on February 6 last year.
The buffer zone, put in place by the local Ealing council, was the first in the UK surrounding such a facility.
Buffer zones around abortion clinics were brought in across the UK in January 2023, after complaints from women of intimidation and harassment from anti-abortion groups and protesters.
Green, from south Wales, told the court in Uxbridge, northwest London, that he was not protesting against abortion but against the zones themselves.
He was carrying a placard at the time with a Bible verse from Psalm 139: "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb."
Green told the court he was challenging "the idea that there are areas in the UK where we may not use certain words from the Bible".
"If the machinery of the state or local government is trying to say there are places where the word of God may not be expressed, I have to challenge that."
Two other protesters joined Green in the demonstration, which lasted 45 minutes, and when he refused to leave, police were called.