COLERAINE, Northern Ireland (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic woman from Northern Ireland was convicted of praying outside an abortion mill in a “buffer zone.”
Claire Brennan was fined £750 ($953) on Monday, December 2, by the Coleraine Magistrate Court for praying and holding a pro-life sign inside of a so-called “buffer zone” outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine on October 3, 2023.
The video of Brennan’s and associate David Hall’s arrest in October 2023 was published on the YouTube channel of the legal advocacy group Christian Concern.
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According to a report by the Belfast-based newspaper News Letter, Brennan had pleaded not guilty to the charges, asserting that her actions were protected under the right to Freedom of Religion under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
District Judge Peter Kind ruled against Brennan, referencing a 2022 Supreme Court of the U.K. decision that upheld Northern Ireland’s abortion protest restrictions because the law supposedly “balanced the rights of protestors with those of women seeking privacy and dignity at abortion clinics.”
After Brennan was sworn in on the Bible, she gave an impassioned speech in defense of the unborn.
“I am a Christian and a pro-life activist, so my moral duty is to stand in the gap for the least of these little ones,” she stated.
“No men have the right to take life, and it is my moral duty to defend the rights of the Bible,” which she had just sworn on, she continued.
Brennan continued by quoting the Book of Proverbs: “It is my duty to rescue those being led to death, to hold back those staggering towards slaughter.” (cf. Proverbs 24:11)
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“These children are being blotted out,” she said. “God had a plan for these children, and it is my duty to stand in the gap and protect these children. So, yes, I was there. I was doing my duty just like a policeman or fireman who protects life.”
“The government, in their pride, thought they were above God and they made a law that is against the Sacred Scripture to take life; and they have brought a great condemnation upon themselves and a chastisement will come for this.”
“They have made a law that prohibits my right to worship, to speak the Gospel to these women, to speak truth to them that their baby is a precious gift from God.”
“I intended to be the last prick of their conscience to help them to choose life,” the 53-year-old pro-life advocate said.
Brennan said that she would appeal the verdict. She told News Letter that she felt “betrayed by the government” and compared it to “a dictatorship.”
The government would “try and censor all Christians out,” she said.
“They’re trying to zone Christians out around abortion facilities and then they will try to zone them out of the public square and town centres.”
The News Letter noted that “An increasing number of Christian street preachers have been arrested in Northern Ireland and England” because they offended the so-called “LGBT community.”
“I feel proud of myself that I had the courage to speak (in court) on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the womb and I pray that these truths spoken reach the hearts of those who are not walking in Christ,” Brennan stated.
She added that she has been receiving support and prayer “from across all of Ireland and beyond.”