The Biden administration used the FACE Act in America to silence anyone who disagreed with it, particularly on the issue of abortion. In Northern Ireland, they have the Abortion Services Act (Safe Access Zones).
According to Premier Christian News, a district judge in Northern Ireland’s Coleraine Magistrates’ Court convicted and fined a 78-year-old retired pastor for reading a Bible passage (John 3:16) in front of the Causeway Hospital in July 2024.
The passage that Clive Johnston read stated, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Johnston is the former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland.
Irish Pastor Clive Johnston responds after he is convicted and fined for preaching John 3:16 in what is known as an abortion ‘Safe Access Zone.’
These Zones now exist across the UK, Canada and elsewhere.
Free speech was given to us by God, and governments cracking down on it… pic.twitter.com/XrHFrYennN
— Sassy Latina (@Virgini58967394) May 11, 2026
On July 7, 2024, Johnston did not mention abortion or say anything accusatory. He did not direct his message toward any single patient or group of patients at the hospital that might be there for an abortion. All he did was deliver an open-air sermon in relatively close proximity to a hospital.
On May 7, 2026, District Judge Peter King convicted the former pastor of “breaching a ‘safe access zone’ outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine,” Fox News Digital reported. The two charges brought against Johnston were: “conducting a protest” that may have been “influencing a protected person” in the act’s buffer zone, and for not complying with law enforcement’s directives to leave the scene.
Keep in mind, the law does not require you to actually influence “a protected person,” but you can be arrested on the possibility that you could influence someone not to kill their baby in the womb. As for the charge of failing to comply with a direction to leave the scene, how many Muslims over the past two years have the Irish national police, the Gardaí, arrested for praying where they shouldn’t? But Christians are fair game? Why is that?
When Fox News Digital caught up with him, Johnston said, “Naturally, I was deeply saddened by the verdict… At 78 years old, I never imagined I would leave a courtroom with a criminal conviction for preaching the Christian gospel. But beyond the personal impact, my overriding concern is what this says about the state of fundamental freedoms in our nation.”
The Abortion Services Act does not allow “influencing,” “preventing or impeding access,” or “causing harassment, alarm or distress” to a protected person within roughly 330 feet of hospitals and clinics that provide abortions.
Johnston must now pay a $614 fine (£450), and his conviction is now on his record, which could influence the severity of potential future convictions.
The Christian Institute, which provided legal support in this case to Johnston, told Fox News that the retiree “may be the first person prosecuted under the law for preaching a sermon that did not mention abortion.”
Obviously, the fine is not the issue here. Johnston expressed a deeper concern for religious freedom and free speech in Ireland and throughout the U.K.
“It effectively redefines peaceful Christian witness as a form of unlawful ‘influence’,” he said to Fox News. “If simply reading the Bible, praying, and preaching on God’s love can now be considered harmful because someone might overhear it within a certain area, then we have crossed a very serious line.”
Johnston’s conviction is now on appeal.
This is not a one-off. Authorities in Scotland previously arrested Rose Docherty, a pensioner in that country, for holding a sign in public that offered to have a conversation in a buffer zone. Her sign read, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Those charges were then dropped.
75-year-old Rose Docherty has been arrested AGAIN
for holding a sign reading “coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want” within a Scottish “buffer zone”
I wonder if the police officers go home and think they have had a fulfilling day at work. 🤔🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/oOa2lA4INT
— Benonwine (@benonwine) November 15, 2025
And still others were arrested and charged for silently praying outside of abortion mills in the U.K.
The arresting officer in Johnston’s case was polite enough and clear enough in his enforcement of the law, and that’s what makes it that much more disturbing. Because it’s not the enforcement of the law that’s most horrific, but it’s the law itself.
Body cam footage of Johnston’s arrest shows the Irish officer warn the retired pastor, “if you are reckless, as to the effect that it (prayer) could have on patients, staff or any protected person, then you may be committing an offense.”
He then told Johnston to make his way into the part of the hospital reserved for chaplains, which is a “safe area,” and it also happens to be far away from anywhere Johnston might be able to give an expectant mother something to think about. We can’t tolerate that.
🚨NEW: Judge to rule on Clive Johnston’s case TOMORROW. 🇬🇧
The 78-year-old pastor was tried for sharing the gospel near a hospital where a “buffer zone” is in place.
He didn’t mention abortion, yet is accused of “influencing” decisions on the matter pic.twitter.com/JyXrrA0DBf
— Lois McLatchie Miller (@LoisMcLatch) May 6, 2026
In the officer’s own words, “While you’re out here in the safe access zone, any act in that area which may dissuade any protected person from availing services, harassment or cause them distress, is an offense.”
In short, the baby killing must go on. Any appeal to conscience will be met and dealt with as a crime, as Ireland continues its downward cultural spiral.
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