Pastor convicted for preaching Bible verses in abortion buffer zone

Retired Northern Ireland pastor Clive Johnston has been convicted for preaching from John 3:16 within an abortion buffer zone, and now faces a £450 fine and a criminal record.

Johnston held an open-air service in a ‘safe access zone’ near Causeway Hospital, Coleraine in July 2024. About the service, he said: “We made no reference whatsoever to the issue of abortion. And yet the buffer zones law is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offence.”

Abortion buffer zones were passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2022 and came into effect in 2023. ‘Safe access zones’ stop protesters from gathering outside abortion providers, intending to protect vulnerable women, but their broad application has been accused of stifling freedom of speech.

At Coleraine Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, Johnston was convicted of “doing an act in a safe access zone with the intent of or being reckless as to whether it had the effect of influencing a protected person attending the premises” as well as failing to leave a safe access zone.

Judge Peter King said that Johnston was “a man of strong religious belief and good character” but that he is also “someone who in the past has been publicly associated with anti-abortion views”. He ruled that Johnston deliberately put himself in a safe access zone whilst being aware that he was at risk of breaching the law, and that he had “tested the law to the point where he broke the law.”

After the verdict, Johnston, who has been supported by the Christian Institute, called it a “dark day for Christian freedom”.

“If someone is out there causing trouble, stirring up violence, harassing or verbally attacking people, then, absolutely, go ahead and prosecute them. But I wasn’t doing any of those things as the police video shows and as everyone involved in this case accepts,” he said.