A retired pastor from Northern Ireland is facing court for holding an open-air Sunday service close to an abortion clinic at the Causeway Hospital in County Derry.
Clive Johnston, a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, was cautioned by police on 7 July last year after preaching on John 3:16 in the vicinity of Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital, which has one of the North’s eight abortion buffer zones.
The Christian Institute, which is supporting the 76-year-old, claims that the service was held on the “fringes” of a buffer zone close to the hospital last summer. Mr Johnston has since received a court summons over complaints made under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act.
The zones – which outlaw protests within a 250 metre radius – were introduced in 2023 after abortion campaigners claimed they were necessary to protect abortion centres’ staff and patients from protestors.
Although Mr Johnston did not mention abortion and was separated from the hospital by a dual carriageway, he was later charged with seeking to ‘influence’ people accessing abortion services, within the censorship zone around the hospital. If convicted, the 76-year-old grandfather of seven faces a criminal record and could be fined thousands of pounds.
A brief preliminary hearing is set to take place in Coleraine on Friday 21 March. The trial is expected in the next few months.
The Christian Institute, in a press statement, questioned whether a “law designed to stop abortion protests” should be used “to criminalise gospel preaching.”
Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert said that it “fundamentally unjust” to criminalise a man for preaching, and playing hymns on a ukulele, as if he were holding an “anti-abortion protest”.
“If the Gospel can be banned in this public place, where else can it be banned?” Mr Calvert said. The organisation said that if a pensioner can be convicted for “preaching about God’s love, “what will that mean for other forms of non-abortion-related speech in these zones? Could people outside a hospital protesting health service cutbacks or junior doctors’ pay be prosecuted?”
“The Christian Institute is backing this case because there is a vital principle at stake. If the Gospel can be banned in this public place, where else can it be banned? The authorities do not seem to have thought through the human rights implications of their decision to prosecute.”
“We have amazing gospel freedom in this country and we encourage Christians to use those freedoms so that more people will hear about the love of God. That’s why we’ve taken on this case. Prosecuting someone for preaching John 3:16 near a hospital on a quiet Sunday is an outrageous restriction on freedom of religion and freedom of speech,” Mr Calvert said on behalf of the Christian Institute.
“It’s just not reasonable or rational to suggest that preaching the Gospel, with no reference to abortion, is a protest against abortion. The police and the Public Prosecution Service are overstepping the mark. This is not what buffer zones were designed to do.
“As far as I can tell, the politicians who backed buffer zones never suggested they should be used to outlaw the Gospel. I hope some of them will come forward to confirm this. They could help to persuade prosecutors to drop this ridiculous case.”
A PPS spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph that the decision to prosecute was made following careful consideration of all the available evidence in a police investigation file
“All PPS decisions are taken impartially, independently and strictly in line with the Code for Prosecutor,” they added.
“As proceedings in this case will begin imminently, it would be inappropriate to comment any further.”