Woman arrested after praying inside abortion buffer zone

Claire Brennan, a Roman Catholic, is being prosecuted after she had been holding a sign reading Pray to End Abortion, praying the Lord’s Prayer inside a ‘buffer zone’ outside Causeway hospital, Coleraine, NI.

A police officer accused her, and a wheelchair-bound colleague, of causing ‘harassment, alarm and distress’. She was arrested and her lawyers subsequent attempts to defend her on human-rights grounds was refused. Brennan is now due to appear before magistrates in October.

Abortion buffer zones in NI were introduced in February 2023 under the Abortion Services Safe Access Zones Act.