Buffer Zone Challenge: Progress

Marie Stopes abortion facility in Ealing. Inside Ealing PSPO Buffer Zone.

Marie Stopes abortion facility in Ealing. Inside Ealing PSPO Buffer Zone.

Parliament wants to put a ‘Buffer Zone’ around every abortion centre and NHS hospital in England and Wales.  Meanwhile, five local authorities in England have placed their own buffer zones around abortion centres in their area.

Five Buffer Zones, five days in the working week? The Buffer Zone Challenge was an obvious opportunity to stand for Jesus Christ in this United Kingdom, at all five abortion facilities in five days, 6th to 10th Feb. 2023.

No Buffer Zones, no Buffer Zone Challenge. If, as Parliament wants, loads of Buffer Zones, they can have loads of Buffer Zone Challenge!

Support the Buffer Zone Challenge HERE.

Sign our Petition against Buffer Zones HERE.

2Sam 10:12 Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good.

The Buffer Zone Challenge so far

Christian Voice stands for Biblical values in law and public policy. We oppose limits on Christian freedom of speech and we stand for life. The Buffer Zone Challenge started as a protest against abortion. The Lord has led us rather into showcasing the stupidity of the buffer zones, praying and showing it is legal to preach inside them, and if the Lord so leads, against them.

Read our previous buffer zone article HERE.

On Monday 6th February, this writer attended Marie Stopes abortion facility inside the Ealing Buffer Zone. I spoke, not against abortion, but against buffer zones. That is perfectly legal under the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) within the buffer zone.

British Pregnancy Advisory Service (sic) building in Ophir Road, Bournemouth.

British Pregnancy Advisory Service (sic) building in Ophir Road, Bournemouth.

Staff came out and were unfriendly. They claimed to have called the police. The Police failed to turn up in a timely fashion, so the Ealing Buffer Zone Challenge was considered done and came to an end.

On Tuesday at Twickenham I reported in, and about, the Buffer Zone and gave a brief Gospel message. No staff came out of the BPAS facility, which was some fifty yards away, and no police or council staff arrived.

One aspect of the reporting was on the words which, according to the PSPO, one is not allowed to utter within the zone (see below). We also considered how many verses of the King James Bible that would proscribe. The KJV is the Bible which King Charles will be given at his coronation in May. All the PSPO’s have the same forbidden words. Twickenham has an extra one (qv).

Lawful to preach the Gospel!

On Wednesday, in Bournemouth, I was greeted by around four police officers. I set up on the green opposite the BPAS facility, reported on the Buffer Zone as before and gave a brief Gospel message. View the whole thing on YouTube HERE.

The police officers heard every word and found nothing contrary to the PSPO, which you will find HERE. They heard, they saw, and we all parted on amicable terms. The abortionists and their supporters were left clueless as to how to react. READ this revealing account in the Bournemouth Echo.  In short, we established it is entirely lawful to preach the Gospel inside the Buffer Zones. So that is what we need to do:

Marie Stopes Abortion Facility in Wynnstay Grove, Fallowfield, Manchester

Marie Stopes Abortion Facility in Wynnstay Grove, Fallowfield, Manchester

Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

On Thursday, in Manchester, council employees as well as police formed the welcoming party. Adrian, the council chap, asked me to conduct my presentation, still in the buffer zone, but not in the actual cul-de-sac containing the Marie Stopes facility. Being a very reasonable man, and not wishing to be charged with interfering with ‘service users’ or staff, I agreed. It appears buffer zones divide into primary and secondary areas. Who knew?  PSPO HERE.

Strange contrast

There is a strange contrast between claims from the abortionists that they are merely providing ‘medical care’ or a ‘medical procedure’ or ‘reproductive health care’ and comments from Dr Rupa Huq MP and others that women feel distressed by pro-life counsellors outside abortion centres. Pro-lifers can ‘bring on all these feelings of guilt and shame’, she has said.

What other ‘medical procedure’ does that? If you have a tooth extracted, or a hip replaced, do you feel ‘guilt and shame?’ Could it be that what MSI and BPAS are offering is rather more serious than ‘medical care’? Perhaps it is their ‘product’ itself which can leave a woman distressed for the rest of her life?

It appears the whole debate revolves around a question never asked, let alone answered: ‘Is that a human being in a mother’s womb?’

The prohibited Biblical words

Birmingham Buffer Zone notice.

Birmingham Buffer Zone notice.

With KJV equivalents in brackets):
Abortion: 0 occurrences. You may say ‘child sacrifice’ would be a KJV equivalent. If we were in a buffer zone, we could not possibly comment.
Baby (or babe): 6 occurrences.
Babies (or babes): 9 occurrences.
Mum (or mother): 297 occurrences.
Womb (unique to Twickenham): 69 occurrences.
Soul (seriously): 432 occurrences.
Kill: 119 occurrences.
(‘Slay’ would add another 113.)
Murder: 9 occurrences.
Hell: 54 occurrences (many from the Lord Jesus!).

That is over 1,000 verses from the KJV a preacher is not allowed to say in the Buffer Zone. Looking for positives, that leaves preachers 30,000 more. ‘Sin’ is not a proscribed word, for a start. Or ‘repent’.

But we say nowhere, certainly in a nation with a Christian constitution, can be allowed to become a no-go area for any portion of the word of God.

Buffer Zones are ridiculous

So the Holy Spirit has taken me in a different direction to how I was thinking before. I have shown the Buffer Zones are ridiculous and also shown that it is legal to preach within them. (So long as you don’t quote their forbidden words!)

BPAS Birmingham

BPAS Birmingham

On Friday, in Birmingham, praise God we had our first engagement with a hostile member of the public.  This is where Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for appearing silently to pray. No police and no council people arrived.

I stood just inside the Buffer Zone boundary on Station Road to speak about buffer zones, then moved two paces to my right to preach against abortion.  That is how crazy the law is.  But it is clearly designed to prevent pro-life witness, at the abortion sites themselves, to women contemplating abortion. Download the PSPO HERE.

I am very grateful to all who have come along to observe or support. Thank God for a successful Buffer Zone Challenge with no breaches and no arrest. The abortionists were left flat-footed. Things, we believe, are changing in the heavenly realm. And as St David said, let us ‘Do the Little Things’ (‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain’). Because, when we do the little things which only we can do, we show our prayer is serious and we can leave the big things, the miracles, to the Almighty.

PRAYER

READ: Gen 4:10-11; Exod 23:7; Numb 35:33; Deut 18:10, 27:25; 2Kings 3:27; Job 31:15; Psalm 106:37-38, 139; Prov 24:11, 31:8; Ezek 16:36-38; Amos 1:13; Micah 6:7; Mark 10:14; Luke 1:41-44; Gal 1:15.

PRAY: Please pray for the grace and protection of the Lord of hosts in the mighty name of Jesus. Pray for his hand to be over the Buffer Zone Challenge. Pray the Lord raises up others for the Buffer Zone Challenge. It is not necessary to do them all, or to do them all in a week. Make a record of yourself being there. Pray also for pro-life pavement counsellors that the Lord will add to their number and give them wisdom, power of the Holy Spirit as well as the love and grace which motivates them in the first place. Pray for the women going in, and those prevented from making an informed choice (in a God-fearing nation there would be no such ‘choice’ to be made) because of the buffer zones. And pray for those in authority, our MPs and Peers, the Councils and the Police. May God send his fear and his wisdom into their hearts.

See our previous articles:

The Buffer Zone Challenge

Abortion Prayer Charges Dropped

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12 comments

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  1. Well done and this is exactly what is needed. Can you clarify; is it the words you have listed in the bit above under the title ‘Prohibited Biblical words’ that are supposedly banned?

    1. Yes, the words under the title.

      1. It worries me a bit to provoke these people on purpose. Many of us are preaching the gospel in the streets and preaching it in buffer zones on purpose is provoking these people . Many have not heard the gospel and this could cause a kick back against all gospel preachers. They are riled up enough as it is I think. Why not go where the crowds are and preach the gospel there instead of purposely in the buffer zones. We often pray outside our abortion clinic but we don’t shout the gospel at them which could affect the work we are doing in the streets alreay.

        1. The idea of no-go areas for Gospel preaching is rather troubling. And I can’t imagine Stephen shouting except to be audible. From the reports there was no acrimony.

        2. Hi Gadz, thanks for that comment. There are quite a few things going on here.
          The first is that, given the buffer zones are an affront, when we do a little thing to witness against them, it changes things in the spiritual realm, and the Lord may release a miracle. That’s my experience.
          Secondly, there is the ‘Rules for Radicals’ principle that it is good to challenge the system, to use it against itself, because their reaction is often more revealing than our initial action. You can see the other side blindsided in the Bournemouth Echo report.
          A ‘kick back against all gospel preachers’? Let them try.
          I agree with you about going where the crowds are. Pro-life witness in the town centre may have a greater impact than a witness outside the abortion premises. Who knows? Maybe a woman with an ‘unplanned’ pregnancy in six months time or someone close to her will remember that outreach and the images they saw. At a personal level, that could save a woman from a lifetime of heartbreak and regret.
          Equally, the Abortion Act itself is an affront, and the abortion premises is a stronghold of Satan. There is a need to go there in any event and pray for it to close, even tell it to close in Jesus’s name.
          I don’t advocate shouting the Gospel, although you have to be heard on the street. You won’t hear me shouting in the Bournemouth video, or indeed any of them. Of course, no end of preachers in churches shout. God is not deaf. But it is a good job he isn’t nervous either.

            • gadz
            • gadz on 20 February 2023 at 15:43

            Maybe we have different circumstances Stephen. We do pray outside our local abortion facility as well as in an intercession group we attend. We also have a team of five or six that go out and share the gospel weekly using a conversational approach which seems to work for young people. Preaching at our abortion centre could jeopardise what we do already.

            • Stephen
            • Stephen on 23 February 2023 at 15:34
              Author

            Hi gadz, well, if the Public Order Bill becomes an Act of Parliament with what is now Clause 10 still in it in any form, you won’t be able, legally, to do any of that within 150m of said abortion centre.
            That would jeopardise what you are doing alright.
            So there is a target for your prayer!
            If it goes through, you either hang out at the margins of the buffer zone, if that is doable, and/or switch your focus to the town centre. And that is not a bad idea. Turn what they have intended for evil to good. Make the best of a bad job.
            But if we get out and do something, anything, just see what the Lord will do.

  2. How ridiculous and disgraceful that certain words are banned in Britain in these zones. They are also words found in the Bible, this coupled with our inalienable right of freedom of speech means these buffer zones are unlawful in that they are not compliant with the Human Rights Act, Magna Carta and Bill of Rights 1689.
    Also note that all sorts of zones are being proposed for us across the country. Fifteen minute cities will create zones where we are placed under restrictions only to be allowed to travel if we can afford to pay, in other words another form of lockdown and obviously more taxation.

  3. Well done.
    I did not know about the forbidden words, Where can I find official documentation, or do the police send them out to you?
    I wonder what words the law of this land will next prohibit from reading from the Holy Bible next?

    1. All links to the five Public Space Protection Orders are now live in the text. Thanks for the prompt.

      1. You say (less than accurately) that “All links to the five Public Space Protection Orders are now live in the text.”

        However, the section of your post that has the large-typed title “The prohibited Biblical words”, doesn’t link to the particular PSPO that lists the prohibited words!

        Verdict: Could do better!

        I am glad that (as you put it), “… the Holy Spirit has taken me in a different direction to how I was thinking before. I have shown the Buffer Zones are ridiculous and also shown that it is legal to preach within them. (So long as you don’t quote their forbidden words!)” That is certainly an answer to my prayers.

        If you value those who have chipped in, who pray, and who might turn up, please make it easy for them to check the facts you report, by actually including links to sources, especially when you’ve already said you have.

        1. Hi John, the links to the five PSBO’s are in the text. You can click on any of them for their version of the prohibited words. Also linked is the Bournemouth Echo report. I’m not sure what more I can do than include links to all the sources!

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