Preacher Who Held up Bible Verse First to Be Convicted of Breaching Buffer Zone Order

A Christian preacher who held up a sign with a verse from the Bible has become the first person to be convicted of breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) near an abortion clinic in west London. Stephen Green, 73, from Carmarthen in Wales, told his trial at Uxbridge Magistrates Court last month his actions had been a protest against the “buffer zone” itself and not abortion. Green told the hearing, “I considered it appropriate to challenge the idea that there are areas of the United Kingdom where one may not use certain words found in the Bible.” The sign he held up outside a Maries Stopes International Reproductive Choices clinic in Mattock Lane, Ealing on Feb. 6, 2023, said, “Psalm 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.”...