Moment Army veteran is confronted for 'silently praying' outside abortion clinic trends now
This is the moment an Army veteran claims he was questioned for 'silently praying' for his 'dead son' outside an abortion clinic as he fights a £100 council fine for breaching an order banning protests around the site.
Adam Smith-Connor, a 49-year-old physiotherapist from Southampton, says he was approached by two council officers as he stood on the pavement outside the BPAS clinic on Ophir Road in Bournemouth.
Mr Smith-Connor, who said his girlfriend had an abortion two decades ago, told the officers he was 'praying for my son', but one of them explained he was in breach of the terms of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).
Many councils have set up PSPOs around abortion clinics to stop women being harassed, with the one around the BPAS clinic banning protests including 'prayer or counselling'. This has prompted a free speech row - with campaigners claiming the law amounts to 'censorship'.
Adam Smith-Connor, a 49-year-old physiotherapist from Southampton, was approached by two council officers as he stood on the pavement outside the BPAS clinic on Ophir Road in Bournemouth
The footage of Mr Smith-Connor, who served in the military for 20 years and has a daughter, 10, and a seven-year-old daughter, was filmed on November 24 last year and shared by ADF UK.
ADF UK are a British branch of American the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, who have campaigned and lobbied against the right to an abortion and against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the US.
The group said it was now supporting him with challenging the £100 fine.
He said: '22 years ago I drove my ex-girlfriend to a facility and paid for her to have an abortion. It was a pivotal moment in my life.
'The consequences of my actions that day came back to grieve me years later, when I realised I had lost my son Jacob to an abortion I had paid for.
'Recently, I stood outside a similar facility and prayed to God for my son Jacob, for other babies who have lost their lives to abortion, for their grieving families, and for abortion clinic staff.'
ADF UK said Mr Smith-Connor had been 'criminalised for his beliefs.
Mr Smith-Connor, who said his girlfriend had an abortion two decades ago, told the officers he was 'praying for my son', but one of them explained he was in breach of the terms of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO)
The footage of Mr Smith-Connor, who served in the military for 20 years and has a daughter, 10, and a seven-year-old daughter, was filmed on November 24 last year and shared by ADF UK
The organisation is also representing a Catholic woman who was confronted by a police officer during a similar stunt outside a BPAS clinic in Birmingham last month.
