Editorial: The right to pray in protest outside abortion clinics is an elementary example of free speech

​It will take some years to absorb the implications of JD Vance’s speech in Munich on Friday.

​Much of the US vice president’s address to a security conference was excellent.

Some of it was of more contestable merit. And some of it was worthy of criticism, even of charges of hypocrisy, given the dubious conduct of the more volatile Trump activists in America when it comes to matters such as free speech and democracy based on the rule of law. But regardless of what we on this side of the Atlantic think of the speech, it set out where the US might be heading politically in this 21st century.

One specific point, however, he made was a very important one. As we report on page eight, Mr Vance set out the disgraceful facts in a case in England in which Adam Smith-Connor, an army veteran, was convicted for silently praying 50 metres from an abortion clinic, for which he had to pay thousands of pounds in costs.

Mr Vance’s claims about praying inside homes in Scotland that are within so-called ‘safe zones’ are reported to be wrong, which is highly regrettable if so because it detracts from his key point: that bans on protests within a certain distance of abortion clinics are appalling.

They are all the more deplorable in Northern Ireland, where the zones can extend to well beyond 100 meters from the entrances or exits of what are called protected premises. This is similar to the restrictions in Great Britain but the context of NI’s past on abortion makes the limits even worse.

Imagine how anyone who was open to some liberalisation of NI’s strict anti abortion laws – but only some – would have thought a few years ago if they had been told we would end up not only with some of the most liberal legislation on terminations in these islands, but also the severe restrictions on so much as protesting against abortions near to clinics.

It is fair to outlaw intimidating protests but otherwise the right to protest openly at the venues where horrifying abortions are performed should be a fundamental one.