Pro-life campaigner Alina Dulgheriu lost her challenge at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, when it upheld a High Court decision to create a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) around an abortion facility in Ealing, London.
As reported earlier this year in ET, Dulgheriu challenged the order, which criminalises activities including silent prayer and offers of help, shortly after its introduction in April 2018.
The Romanian-born mother argued the order violated her fundamental rights to freedom of speech and assembly. According to advocacy organisation ADF International, she will now appeal to the Supreme Court.
Robert Clarke, director of European Advocacy for the organisation, said, ‘The decision provided an opportunity for the Court of Appeal to reaffirm the fundamental right to speech and assembly. Instead, it upheld Ealing’s decision to eradicate offers of help in the name of choice.
‘PSPO ignores the real experience of hundreds of women – like Alina – and is entirely disproportionate. It is a violation of the rights to freedom of speech and assembly, the importance of which has been so often reiterated by the European Court of Human Rights’.
According to Laurence Wilkinson, legal counsel for ADF International in London, ‘Free societies must discuss controversial ideas rather than simply criminalising them’.
