London Assembly Passes ‘Orwellian’ Motion to Arrest and Prosecute Pro-Life Christians

The London Assembly is taking attacks on pro-lifer activists to another level.

Last week, in a move that Breitbart News described as “Orwellian,” the group passed a motion that prohibits even peaceful pro-life vigils in front of abortion clinics, and gives powers to the MPs to arrest and prosecute those participating in such activity.

The motion, proposed by Labour Party member Fiona Twycross, labeled pro-life activists and Christian women’s support groups as “anti-choice campaigners” and accused them of “obstruction, intimidation and harassment.” Lifenews.com reported that this motion “would send a clear message that threatening behavior would not be tolerated on the streets of London.”

According to Lifenews.com, Twycross insisted that the motion was not about preventing free speech, but that the protests are “targeted harassment of a minority group.” Twycross and cohorts in the assembly are “concerned” that pro-life campaigners who pray near the abortion clinics and offer support to mothers are harassing those individuals.

Breitbart reported that pro-abortion radical feminist group Sister Supporter, who pushed for the vote, “hopes it will inspire similar bans all over the country.”

Breitbart reported this week that the Good Counsel Network, a pro-life group great distressed by the passage of the motion, says there “hasn’t been a single conviction or caution from police in their 23 years of prayer vigils and outreach gatherings in Ealing, West London, near the Marie Stopes abortion clinic,” and that mothers who have been helped by the group near the clinic have “praised their actions.”

Ahead of last week’s vote, London Assembly member David Kurten visited GCN members and argued in an “impassioned speech” before the assembly that the group held “dignified prayer vigils” and offered mothers a choice to keep their children alive rather than “acting as anti-choice campaigners.”

“(The motion) so misrepresents the truth of what is happening outside the abortion clinics that it would be straight out of (the book) 1984,” Kurten said. “If we vote for this motion, we are going to take away perhaps the last choice, the last hope that these mothers have not to have an abortion.”

Despite Kurten’s words, the motion passed 12-4.

“We’re trying to ban a protest because we disagree with the ethos of the protestors, and that is fundamentally wrong,” conservative assembly member Steve O’Connell said.

Shawn A. Akers is content development editor for Charisma Media. {eoa}