A woman who is being prosecuted for the alleged breach of a “buffer zone” outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic has said she is “grateful” after the US State Department expressed concern over the case.
Anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt was on trial at Poole Magistrates’ Court last month accused of breaching the Public Spaces Protection Order on two days in March 2023 with the verdict set to be given on Friday April 4.
The case involved the 64-year-old holding a sign saying “Here to talk, if you want”.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labour (DRL), a bureau within the US Department of State, issued a statement on X which said: “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 United Kingdom.
“While recently in the UK, DRL senior adviser Sam Samson met with Livia Tossici-Bolt, who faces criminal charges for offering conversation within a legally prohibited ‘buffer zone’ at an abortion clinic.
“We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.”
[2/2] While recently in the UK, DRL Senior Advisor Sam Samson met with Livia Tossici-Bolt, who faces criminal charges for offering conversation within a legally prohibited “buffer zone” at an abortion clinic. We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and…
— State Dept: Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor (DRL) (@StateDRL) March 30, 2025
The Telegraph has quoted a source “familiar with trade negotiations” between the UK and US as saying that there should be “no free trade without free speech”.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that free speech has not been part of tariff negotiations with the US.
He told Times Radio: “Obviously, there are things from different people in the administration that they’ve said in the past about this, but it’s not been part of the trade negotiations that I’ve been part of.”
Dr Tossici-Bolt, a retired medical scientist living in Bournemouth, Dorset, said: “I am grateful to the US State Department for taking note of my case.
“Great Britain is supposed to be a free country, yet I’ve been dragged through court merely for offering consensual conversation. I’m thankful to ADF International for supporting my legal defence.
“Peaceful expression is a fundamental right — no one should be criminalised for harmless offers to converse.”
She added: “It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the US feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties.
“I’m grateful to the US administration for prioritising the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end.
“It deeply saddens me that the UK is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech.
“My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today.
“It is important that the government actually does respect freedom of expression, as it claims to.”
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) International, said: “The UK’s censorship crisis is the result of a long-standing failure by British politicians to vigilantly protect fundamental rights in the UK, while hypocritically claiming to champion them abroad.
“We cannot consistently claim the UK is a bastion of free speech when law-abiding citizens like Livia are prosecuted for nothing other than peacefully offering to speak to people.
“It is right for the US State Department and JD Vance to warn the UK that censorship is antithetical to freedom, democracy, and societal flourishing.”
Lorcan Price, also legal counsel for ADF International, said: “We are used to seeing this kind of diplomacy happen with countries that have authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. It is sobering to realise the censorship crisis in the UK has become so extreme that it is now necessary here too.
“Livia’s criminal prosecution for merely offering consensual conversation highlights in a particular way that free speech is now becoming a major point of contention between the US and UK.
“If the UK continues to abandon free speech, it’s now clear there will be no ‘special relationship’. We are grateful to the US for engaging in diplomacy to promote the fundamental right of freedom of expression in this country.
“But we deeply regret that our own politicians’ instinct is to censor speech and even prayers they object to. We hope this story and Livia’s shocking prosecution instigate a return to valuing free speech in Great Britain.”
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the UK should not be “persecuting people for expressing themselves” but that “on balance, we are in a good place in our country”.
“We do have freedom of expression but it is at risk in some places if we’re not paying attention,” she told LBC.
Downing Street would not comment on the specific case but in relation to measures announced under the last government the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Government’s clear that it’s vital that a woman who decides to use abortion services has the right to choose to do so without being subject to harassment or distress, and that’s why the previous government announced rules around that.”
