JD Vance is Right: Europe is Actively Banning Pro-Life Free Speech
J.D. Vance set off a storm with his comments in Munich on the parlous state of free speech in Europe and an official clampdown on pro-life prayer. The Guardian labelled him an extremist for launching what they called “a broadside against the UK’s efforts to protect women seeking an abortion”.
The Guardian – that fearless crusader for freedom and equality – described Vance’s speech as “a wide-ranging tirade against Europe”, adding that his comments on pro-life censorship were being lambasted as “inaccurate and misogynistic by a number of groups, politicians and governments.”
However, from those truly concerned about free speech, he received resounding applause and his intervention, along with President Trump’s moves within days of taking office to cancel “diversity” fascism – and in so doing, defending free speech – represent for many people a sign of hope that free expression, which has seemed to be on its last legs, is not dead yet.
The dire state into which our own right to free speech in the United Kingdom has fallen can be judged by the case, referenced by Vance, of Adam Smith-Connor, a British forces veteran prosecuted for silently praying for the son that he allowed to be aborted – and also Isabel Vaughan-Spruce.
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In a seemingly hopeful sign, Vaughan-Spruce recently received £13,000 in compensation for being repeatedly fined, harassed and wrongly arrested by police on several occasions since 2022. However – around the same time Vance made his remarks – she was yet again interrogated for silently praying and told that her mere presence in the street was illegal because it might upset somebody.
Consider also the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, a 63-year-old retired medical scientist, who faces trial for merely standing silently holding a sign reading “here to talk, if you want to” near an abortion facility in Bournemouth – to which, in response, “[s]everal individuals approached her” anxious to access that help.
In all these cases, “the process is the punishment”. Unlike every other offence, such peaceful individuals can be serially charged and exonerated over and over again. And in a clear case of “two-tier policing”, there is never any shortage of “thought police” to probe their private prayers, even while shoplifting has been virtually legalised, and burglaries go unattended – not to mention violent and sexual offences becoming commonplace.
LifeNews Note: Ann Farmer is a writer at MercatorNet where this story appeared.