Clive Johnston
Retired pastor Clive Johnston is being prosecuted under abortion buffer zones laws for an open-air sermon on John 3:16, even though abortion was never mentioned.
The 76-year-old, a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, is facing two charges under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act for holding an open-air Sunday service on the fringes of a buffer zone on the other side of a dual carriageway from Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital on 7 July last year.
The Act means it is now a criminal offence for people to be “impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress” within the eight 100-150m buffer zones that were created around hospitals and abortion clinics.
Mr Johnston, who pastored several churches in the North West, is 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. He is not accused of impeding or harassing.
Crucially, it is not alleged that he even mentioned abortion. Nor were there any abortion placards or banners.
If convicted, the grandfather of seven, who has never been in trouble with the police, faces a criminal record and maximum fines totalling thousands of pounds.
Pastor Johnston is being supported by The Christian Institute, which successfully assisted Ashers Baking Co. in its landmark Supreme Court win against the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in the ‘Gay Cake Case’.
High resolution images of Clive
A brief preliminary hearing will be attended by Clive’s lawyers in Coleraine on Friday 21 March. The trial is expected in the next few months.
