UK pastor on trial for preaching near abortion buffer zone in Northern Ireland

(LifeSiteNews) — Retired pastor Clive Johnston, age 76, went on trial at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court in Northern Ireland on Wednesday over his preaching an open-air sermon on a passage from the Bible on the edge of the abortion “buffer zone” of Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital last July. Causeway Hospital provides abortions through the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.

Johnston, the former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, did not mention abortion in his sermon, which focused exclusively on the Gospel. There were also no pro-life signs present during the Sunday morning sermon, at which about a dozen people were in attendance.

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Nonetheless, he is being prosecuted on two charges under the 2023 Abortion Services Act for the sermon, which makes it criminal for people to be “impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm, or distress” within the 100 to 150 meter zones (328–492ft) around abortion facilities or hospitals that provide abortions.

“Mr Johnston, from Strabane, appeared at a preliminary hearing in March after being accused of seeking to ‘influence’ people accessing the hospital’s abortion services and for not immediately leaving the area when asked to do so by police,” stated Christian Concern, which is defending Johnston, in a press release. “The Causeway is a large hospital with a wide range of services.”

The press release continued: “If convicted, the grandfather of seven – who has never been in trouble with the police – faces a criminal record and potential fines totaling thousands of pounds.” Johnston pleaded not guilty to both charges in March.

“Prosecuting Pastor Johnston for preaching ‘God so loved the world’ near a hospital on a quiet Sunday is a shocking new attempt to restrict freedom of religion and freedom of speech in a part of the world where open-air gospel services are a part of the culture,” stated Simon Calvert, deputy director of The Christian Institute.

“Christians are pro-life. But preaching the good news about Christ is not the same thing as protesting against abortion,” Calvert continued. “There is a vital principle at stake. If the Gospel can be banned in this public place, where else can it be banned?”

Aaron Thompson, Johnston’s defense lawyer, stated that there is “a tension between the buffer zone legislation and Mr Johnston’s freedom of conscience and religious expression as enshrined in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

There have been multiple arrests in the U.K. over alleged violations of the buffer zones, including 75-year-old grandmother Rose Docherty in September, who had had previous charges against her dropped. The U.S. State Department has specifically cited these arrests as evidence of the “human rights situation in the U.K.” worsening in 2025, with the White House intervening to support 64-year-old Livia Tossci-Bolt, who was arrested outside a clinic in April. The White House also sent U.S. diplomats to interview five arrestees in March and has said it is monitoring the situation in the U.K.

“I am grateful for the kind messages of support I have received from members of the public both here and abroad, and for the prayers being offered up to God about this case by many Christians,” Johnston said in a press release. The Police Service of Northern Ireland declined to comment when asked by Fox News beyond affirming Johnston’s arrest and prosecution.

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Johnston’s case once again highlights an underlying reality of the abortion wars: the faceoff between the Gospel and abortion ideology. Despite abortion not being mentioned in Johnston’s sermon, police, prosecutors, and abortion activists seem to collectively recognize that the Christian message and the practice of abortion are fundamentally at odds.

“Christians are pro-life. But preaching the good news about Christ is not the same thing as protesting against abortion. The Police and the Public Prosecution Service are overstepping the mark,” Simon Calvert stated.

“Yes, Clive has campaigned in the past on abortion. But at this service, abortion was not mentioned in any way. This was an open-air service for about a dozen people, near a hedge, separated from the entrance road to Causeway Hospital by a dual carriageway with Clive leading well-known hymns on a ukelele.”

“Yet the police summons says he ‘conducted a protest’ to try to influence patients or staff attending the abortion centre,” he continued. “This is religiously illiterate.”

Or perhaps it is not. Perhaps, if only instinctively, the state sees the Christian message as a threat to the child sacrifice taking place just 150 meters away.