New guidance from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) indicates that carrying a Bible or praying at a patient's bedside within hospitals could be treated as a crime if it violates abortion buffer zone laws.
The PSNI issued a written response on July 2 to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, clarifying the scope of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023. The law prohibits "influencing," "preventing or impeding access," or "causing harassment, alarm or distress" to a protected person within 100 meters (approximately 328 feet) of facilities where abortions are performed.
According to the PSNI, the law makes "no exemptions" for clergy or religious identity. While the guidance states that the law does not affect the "vast majority" of hospital chaplains or pastors in their day-to-day work unless their activities fall within a protected safe access zone, actions such as reading Scripture, consensual pastoral ministry, and praying with a patient during end-of-life care could be considered unlawful if they occur inside a protected zone and are perceived as potentially influencing or distressing a protected person.
The guidance emphasizes that the intention behind the activity does not shield a religious person from liability. The PSNI stated, "Describing conduct as pastoral, prayerful or religious in nature does not determine whether an offence has been committed. The test is not how the person describes their own behaviour – it is whether that behaviour, assessed objectively and in its full context, influenced, impeded, or caused distress to a protected person, or was reckless as to whether it did so."
This clarification follows the conviction of retired pastor Clive Johnston, 78, who was fined approximately $614 in May for preaching a sermon on John 3:16 near a hospital where abortions are performed. The Christian Institute, a faith-based advocacy group that supported Johnston, stated that he may be the first person prosecuted under the law for preaching a sermon that did not directly mention abortion.
Pastor Jonathan Campbell of Newbuildings Independent Methodist Church in Londonderry expressed concern that the ruling and new guidance leave U.K. Christians uncertain about how to conduct religious ministry in hospitals without risking legal repercussions. He stated, "It’s unthinkable that the Bible, or even just clerical dress, could be off-limits on hospital grounds in case someone might find it offensive."
A PSNI spokesperson stated that the police service "is not seeking to police religion or lawful pastoral care." The spokesperson added that while individuals have rights to "freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and freedom of expression," these rights "are not absolute and must be balanced against the rights and protections contained in the legislation, and against the rights of others." The assessment of whether conduct within a buffer zone constitutes a criminal offense is fact-specific and not determined solely by religious materials or the person's identity, the spokesperson said. The guidance, according to the PSNI, was issued to assist officers in applying the law consistently and does not create new offenses.
Ciarán Kelly, director of The Christian Institute, argued that the law is "being interpreted in ways that threaten ordinary Christian ministry inside hospitals." He suggested that even a chaplain praying with grieving parents and reading from Psalm 23 could potentially fall foul of the law, and that someone merely carrying a Bible through certain hospital areas could face investigation if it is believed to potentially influence an abortion decision.
The U.S. State Department has also been monitoring similar cases in the U.K. and Europe, with a spokesperson previously telling Fox News Digital that such actions represent "an egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty, but also a concerning departure from the shared values that ought to underpin U.S.-U.K. relations."