Northern Ireland abortion buffer zones: PSNI warns it will make arrests if Portadown pro-life parade breaches 'Safe Access Zone' at Craigavon Area Hospital

The parade, organised by Abolish Abortion NI, will proceed to the hospital - which has an abortion services clinic - the day after protest buffer zones come into force across NI.

Organisers have told the Parades Commission they expect around 300 people to take part.

‘Safe Access Zones’ will forbid protests from within 100m-250m of entrances of clinics providing abortion operations or advice from this Friday.

The move follows the passing of a private member’s Bill from former Green Party leader Clare Bailey at Stormont last year.

In a statement, Abolish Abortion NI confirmed that Saturday's march will proceed as planned "regardless of new laws enforcing Buffer Zones at Craigavon Area Hospital".

The group claims the new law makes prayer and Christian witness illegal within the designated zone.

It added: "Since Northern Ireland's laws protecting unborn babies were removed in 2020, almost 1000 babies have been murdered at Craigavon Area Hospital. This year hospital management has spent over £500,000 funding medical and surgical abortions. These are the most restrictive censorship laws in Europe. We expect such rules from a totalitarian regime, not a liberal democracy."

PSNI Superintendent Amanda Ford urged those parading not to breach the new law.

“We will be policing this with the ‘Four Es’ approach of engage, explain, encourage and enforce if required,” she said.

“Any person found to be doing an act as defined by the legislation, within a safe access zone, could face a fine of up to £500. We would expect that persons will respect the zone, to avoid any requirement for Police action, which may lead to an arrest.”

Police would welcome the opportunity to engage with the parade organisers to prevent any breaches, she added.

The Department of Health said the law was passed by a majority of MLAs.

"The Supreme Court has ruled that this legislation is not incompatible with the Convention rights of those who seek to express opposition to the provision of abortion services in Northern Ireland," she said. "It would therefore not be accurate to claim that they remove the right to protest or to free speech."

The zones will also be introduced at Daisy Hill, Causeway, Altnagelvin, Lagan Valley and Ulster Hospitals as well as clinics at College Street and Bradbury Wellbeing and Treatment Centre in Belfast.

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said she is delighted the zones will be introduced, after sitting on the Health Committee that took evidence about the issue.

“We heard many harrowing and deeply troubling stories from women, their loved ones and healthcare providers themselves who had to run the gauntlet in trying to access the health care facilities," she said.

Meanwhile, a Catholic woman who was arrested for silently praying in a protest buffer zone in Birmingham says she has been vindicated after West Midlands Police dropped a six-month investigation into her without charge

Police dropped the case against Isabel Vaughan-Spruce after Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote to British police forces advising that “silent prayer, in itself, is not unlawful” in such zones.