A retired pastor from Northern Ireland is being prosecuted for holding an open-air Sunday service within one of the Province’s eight abortion censorship zones.
Clive Johnston, a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, was cautioned by police on 7th July last year after preaching on John 3:16 in the vicinity of Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital.
Although Mr Johnston did not mention abortion and was separated from the hospital by a dual carriageway, he was later charged with seeking to ‘influence’ people accessing abortion services, within the censorship zone around the hospital. If convicted, the 76-year-old grandfather of seven faces a criminal record and could be fined thousands of pounds.
The zones were introduced in 2023 after pro-abortion lobbyists claimed they were necessary to protect abortion centres’ staff and patients from protestors.
If the Gospel can be banned in this public place, where else can it be banned? The authorities do not seem to have thought through the human rights implications of their decision to prosecute.