Trump sent US officials to meet UK pro-life activists over concerns their freedom of speech

[Social Media]

 

The Trump administration has dispatched a team of diplomats to the UK to investigate what it views as a troubling erosion of free speech rights, particularly regarding pro-life activists. The five-person delegation from the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor spent several days in the UK, conducting interviews and meetings to assess what officials described as the shrinking space for dissent.

 

The visit was led by Samuel Samson, a senior adviser at the State Department, and included formal talks with Foreign Office officials and UK regulators like Ofcom, particularly around contentious elements of the Online Safety Act. But perhaps most controversially, the team held private meetings with several British pro-life campaigners who had been arrested for silently protesting near abortion clinics. These included Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, Rose Docherty, Adam Smith-Connor, Livia Tossici-Bolt, and Catholic priest Father Sean Gough.

 

Mrs Docherty, a 74-year-old grandmother, told The Telegraph she was the first person arrested under a new Scottish law creating buffer zones outside abortion clinics. She said, “All I did was stand peacefully offering consensual conversation to anyone who wanted to take up my offer to talk. I didn’t break the law, I didn’t influence, I didn’t harass, I didn’t intimidate. And yet, I was arrested just for standing there, peacefully, within 200m of a hospital. This can’t be just. It’s heartening that others around the world, including the US government, have realised this injustice and voiced their support.”

 

Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested in 2023 for praying silently outside a clinic in Birmingham, said, “Since I was arrested simply for the prayers I held in my head, the support from both here in the UK and around the world has been overwhelming. I’m glad that the US administration has highlighted this injustice and hope that UK politicians can be bold enough to make the changes necessary to restore freedom.”

 

The Trump administration’s interest is not limited to these individual cases. Elon Musk, an adviser to Donald Trump and a vocal critic of online censorship, is reportedly among those inside the administration concerned about UK regulatory overreach. Officials also raised the issue of buffer zone laws with UK authorities during trade discussions, with a US source stating, “No free trade without free speech.”

 

Adam Smith-Connor, an Army veteran who received a two-year conditional discharge for breaching a protest ban in Bournemouth, was cited by US Vice President JD Vance during a speech in Munich as an example of why “free speech in Britain and across Europe was in retreat.”

 

The case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who also received a conditional discharge and a £20,026 fine for praying within a buffer zone, reportedly alarmed US negotiators to the extent that it nearly derailed trade discussions. Her case, like the others, is being defended by the US-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian legal group.

 

ADF legal counsel Lorcan Price said, “Because these peaceful individuals held thoughts and beliefs of which the state disapproved, they find themselves fighting to defend their very right to free thought. Now, fellow Western nations are noticing this erosion of freedom – and we should take heed. We hope our own legislators, witnessing this injustice impacting citizens, will step up to clarify that silent prayer, and consensual conversation, are lawful activities in this country.”

 

Concerns from across the Atlantic extend beyond pro-life activism. Right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk raised the case of Lucy Connolly with the White House. Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, was jailed for 31 months after posting a racist outburst on X following a knife attack by Axel Rudakubana that killed three girls in Southport. Her appeal was rejected, and critics claim her sentence exemplifies the imbalance in how speech is policed in the UK.

 

Nigel Farage, a long-time Trump ally, commented, “The Lucy Connolly case alone shows that two-tier Britain is really here. My American friends cannot believe what is happening in the UK.”

 

A spokesperson for the US State Department stated, “US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. However, as Vice-President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the UK. It is important that the UK respects and protects freedom of expression.” The UK Cabinet Office has declined to comment on the matter.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from The Telegraph  2025-05-26

 

 

[JAG]

The "US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor " would do well to wind their neck in, and instead concern themselves with the rapidly emerging threats to democracy, human rights and labour in their own country.

 

The law (and the way in which it is enforced) against "silent prayer" is atrocious, but we don't need the US State Department getting involved.

[Yagoda]

1 hour ago, JAG said:

The law (and the way in which it is enforced) against "silent prayer" is atrocious, but we don't need the US State Department getting involved.

Yeah. You do. Thats their job. When folks start depriving folks of their rights like in Britain or similar places like Sudan or South Africa, we need to speak up.

 

1 hour ago, JAG said:

rapidly emerging threats to democracy, human rights and labour in their own country.

tell us what these threats are? WE have a written constitution and a system that enforces it.

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours ago, Social Media said:

The Trump administration has dispatched a team of diplomats to the UK to investigate what it views as a troubling erosion of free speech rights, particularly regarding pro-life activists.

Yes is called protection women’s right to make their own health choices.

 

Your freedom of speech stops at the surface of anyone else’s body.

 

Now go for coffee.

 

 

[Gsxrnz]

Trump is well aware that the ultimate weapon of the Marxist Left is accusations and convictions for "wrongthink". 

 

If you can be jailed for wrongthink, you can be jailed for anything or everything. Just ask the KGB. 

[JonnyF]

6 hours ago, Social Media said:

The Trump administration has dispatched a team of diplomats to the UK to investigate what it views as a troubling erosion of free speech rights, particularly regarding pro-life activists.

 

Good to see Trump cares about the free speech of British citizens, even if Starmer doesn't.

 

Thanks Don. 

 

6 hours ago, Social Media said:

 “Since I was arrested simply for the prayers I held in my head, the support from both here in the UK and around the world has been overwhelming.

 

Arrested for silently praying. Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch. But no, this is modern Britain. Shameful.