The first arrests in Northern Ireland in relation to the new buffer zones regulation around abortion clinics occurred on the morning of October 3. The individuals arrested were a Catholic man and woman. They were praying outside Causeway Hospital. The woman was praying on her knees with a rosary and they were holding pro-life signs. Officers told them to leave and when they refused they were arrested. They were later released on bail pending further enquiries. The issue was highlighted when a pro-choice activist posted a photo of the pair talking to a police officer on social media. A fellow activist who knew the pair said they had been coming to pray outside the hospital weekly after regulations permitting abortion were introduced in Northern Ireland in March 2020.
UPDATE: Pro-life campaigner Claire Brennan was this week convicted of protesting in the safe access buffer zone at Coleraine Hospital in County Derry on 3rd October. She was fined £750 by Coleraine Magistrates’ Court. She became the first person to be arrested under the law in October 2023.
She was fined in December 2024 £300 for unlawful protest, and a further £450 for refusing to leave the buffer zone. She intends to lodge an appeal within 21 days: “If the appeal doesn’t go through then I will be bound by the court’s to pay the fine. I will not pay the fine and I will do up to one week in prison,” she said.