US Government 'monitoring' UK abortion zone prosecutions as Northern Ireland pastor due in court
The US government has said it is "monitoring" the prosecution of people in the UK for allegedly breaching abortion protest buffer zones - as a former President of the Irish Baptist Union is due in court this week in Coleraine over the matter.
Retired pastor Clive Johnston, 77, from Strabane, is accused of preaching in the buffer zone around Causeway Coast Hospital on Sunday July 7 2024.
He maintains that he only preached a simple gospel message and did not mention abortion at any time.
The grandfather-of-seven is also charged with failing to comply with a police direction leave the protest buffer zone.
The UK zones made international headlines when US vice-president JD Vance singled them out for criticism in a speech to the Munich Security Conference last year.
Eight zones of 100-250 metres were placed around Northern Ireland abortion clinics in 2023 to keep pro-life campaigners away from patients and staff.
It is now a criminal offence for people to be “impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress” within the zones, punishable by a fine of up to £500.
Individuals have already been convicted of similar offences in England, Scotland and NI.
Mr Johnston is due to make his final scheduled appearance before Coleraine Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning, backed by the Christian Institute.
His case was carried prominently in the Daily Telegraph this week, which also carried reaction from the US state department.
It said: “The United States is still monitoring many buffer zone cases in the UK, as well as other acts of censorship throughout Europe.
“The UK’s persecution of silent prayer represents not only 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 US-UK relations.”
In November 2025, The Telegraph revealed that US officials were in the early stages of exploring the possibility of offering political asylum to Britain’s “thought criminals”.
The administration has kept a close eye on buffer zones since Donald Trump came into office.
In his 2025 speech at the Munich Security Conference, JD Vance singled out a pro-life activist who was convicted for breaching a buffer zone.
“Free speech in Britain and across Europe is in retreat,” he said at the time.
In December, the White House warned that censorship of free expression in Europe is contributing to “civilisational erasure”.
Former Attorney General John Larkin KC, defence barrister Aaron Thompson and solicitor Colin Dougan represented the pastor in court in December.
Prosecuting and defence counsels told District Judge Peter King there was a large amount of agreement as regards what actually happened at the hospital on the Sunday afternoon.
The ex-pastor said his intention was to “test” the law but not break it.
His defence is arguing that his freedom of conscience and religious expression are protected under under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
With all of the evidence in the case having been heard, both sides were set to lodge skeleton arguments over the legislation and how the various articles of the European Convention on Human Rights applies.
They are due to be heard in Coleraine magistrates’ court this Wednesday morning.
However Pro-choice campaigner and academic Goretti Horgan said the US government has little credibility on this subject.
“One imagines few people in Northern Ireland will take lectures from Donald Trump or JD Vance about what anyone, including Christians, should be thinking – given some of their online insults to Christian beliefs,” she said.
"But when it comes to Safe Access Zones and complaints from the US about anti abortion campaigners being charged for ‘silent prayer’ at hospitals where abortions are provided, the question is why are they praying outside hospitals, rather than in a church or at home, or elsewhere?
"The answer is that, in praying to end abortion, they are saying that anyone who has one is a sinner and marking out anyone seeking an abortion as ‘other’.”
There can be “no denying” that stigma damages health and in turn, protesters are “damaging the health of the staff as well as patients using healthcare services”, she said.
"As such, the Safe Access Zones are not undermining the right to free speech, or to pray, but a pubic health measure.”