Donald Trump, JD Vance and UK abortion clinic buffer zones: Welcome from Northern Ireland as US seeks pro-life campaigners to support
There has been a warm welcome in Northern Ireland to reports that the US government is seeking to champion more pro-life campaigners facing prosecution in the UK for breaching abortion clinic protest buffer zones.
The disclosure came after Dr Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20,026 in costs for breaching a ban on protests in a protected buffer zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.
The prosecution gained global attention last week when the US State Department announced it was “monitoring” her case.
After her conviction, an agency of the US State Department, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labour, said on X: "We are disappointed with the UK court's conviction of Livia Tossici-Bolt for violating a designated 'buffer zone' at an abortion clinic. Freedom of expression must be protected for all."
The UK buffer zones made headlines in February when US Vice President JD Vance singled them out for criticism in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, claiming that the UK and EU face a greater “threat from within” due to censorship than the danger posed by Russia and China.
Ms Tossici-Bolt is being supported by US-based pro-life group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Since her conviction on Friday, the Daily Telegraph has disclosed that Sam Samson, a State Department senior adviser, met Tossici-Bolt and ADF representatives in the UK a fortnight ago to discuss a response to the charges against her – and asking to meet UK-based campaigners facing prosecution.
Speaking to the Telegraph about meeting the US officials, Tossici-Bolt said: “I was amazed they were listening to me. They were very sympathetic, very helpful and supportive.”
Retired Strabane Baptist Pastor Clive Johnston is currently facing charges for preaching in the buffer zone in Coleraine while pro-life campaigner Claire Brennan is appealing a conviction for protesting in the same zone.
Eight protest zones of 100-250m were put in place around NI abortion clinics in 2023, to keep pro-life campaigners away from patients and staff using the clinics.
TUV leader Jim Allister MP said it is “good to see international attention on the alarming assault on freedom of speech which the Tossici-Bolt case exposed”.
He added: “All this lady did was offer consensual conversation in a public place through silently holding up a poster. Yet, the court found her guilty, demonstrating it is the law, not Ms Tessici-Bolt, that is wrong.
"Likewise, we have a case against Pastor Clive Johnston pending in Coleraine - another example of the illiberal woke agenda which seeks to suppress all views but their own. “As for those lamenting American interference, they were the cheerleaders when the UN committee insisted on changes to our abortion laws!"
But pro-choice Ulster University academic Goretti Horgan disagreed.
“I doubt anyone will be surprised that Trump, who is happy to support the wholesale massacre of already born children and babies in Gaza, is supporting the people in Britain who try to stigmatise and shame women who are seeking healthcare," she said.