Christian scientist charged with breaching abortion buffer zone

A pro-life campaigner’s sign offering pregnant women the chance to talk amounted to intimidation and breached an abortion buffer zone, a magistrates court has concluded.

Livia Tossici-Bolt, a retired scientist and member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children’s Bournemouth branch was charged after holding up a ‘here to talk if you want’ sign outside an Bournemouth abortion clinic in March 2023. She told a police officer her sign offered conversation to anyone who approached her voluntarily. That officer did not witness Livia intimidating or harassing anyone but asked her to leave the zone and she refused.

The judge at Poole Magistrates Court said case law was clear that behaviour outside abortion clinics can reasonably be interpreted as opposition or disapproval to abortion. She could have chosen a different location. She was convicted of two breaches of the public spaces protection order, given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20,000 in prosecution costs.