A retired medical scientist is being put in the dock in a landmark freedom of speech case after she stood near an abortion clinic holding the sign: ‘Here to talk if you want to’.
Livia Tossici-Bolt, 63, is accused of breaching a ‘buffer zone’ set up in Bournemouth that bans protests and ‘expression of approval or disapproval of abortion’.
Ms Tossici-Bolt, who worked at Southampton’s University Hospital Trust as a medical researcher, will appear at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court on March 6.
She has refused to pay a fixed penalty notice issued by the local council in June 2023 and denies her ‘here to talk if you want to’ sign was inflammatory and believes her right to freedom of expression is under threat.
Several people approached her to take up her offer of a conversation about matters going on in their lives, Livia claims.
The prosecution is being brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council who are seeking to enforce a legal ban on any demonstration within around 500ft of an abortion clinic in England and Wales. They declined to comment.
But Ms Tossici-Bolt insists that holding the sign in the zone, and chatting to people, cannot be a breach.
She said: ‘I shouldn’t be treated like a criminal just for this. There’s nothing wrong with two adults engaging in a consensual conversation on the street’.
She is being represented by lawyers from the UK branch of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) – an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group.
Its work is aimed at expanding Christian religious liberties, and is opposed to abortion.
Livia Tossici-Bolt, 63, pictured in Parliament Square holding the sign that has led to her facing prosecution in Bournemouth
A buffer zone has been set up in Bournemouth after the law changed in 2023 to prevent protests near abortion clinics in England and Wales
Ms Tossici-Bolt and her legal team deny she breached any buffer zone and has the right to freedom of expression, under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
She claims that she was offering consensual conversations and that several women took her up on the offer on her sign, that she was ‘here to talk’.
‘For several years now, I have been offering a helping hand to women who would like to consider other options to abortion, and pointing them to options where they can receive financial and practical support, if that’s what they would like.
‘There’s nothing wrong with offering help,’ said Ms Tossici-Bolt, whose legal defence is being supported by ADF UK.
In 2023, the UK government passed legislation in the Public Order Act to enforce censorial buffer zones around all abortion facilities, banning any form of ‘influence of a person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services.’
Last year Adam Smith-Connor was prosecuted for praying silently in the ‘buffer zone’.
The former army veteran had stood in silent prater across the road from the same abortion facility in Bournemouth, inside the buffer zone.
ADF are supporting his appeal.
Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was prosecuted after he prayed outside the same abortion clinic in Bournemouth in November 2022
Jeremiah Igunnubole, Legal Counsel for ADF UK, said: ‘Under far-reaching and vaguely-written rules, we have seen volunteers like Livia criminalised simply for offering conversations to those in need; and others dragged through courts for praying, even silently, in their minds.
‘The principle of freedom of thought and speech must be defended both within and outside “buffer zones”.
‘It’s unthinkable that as real crime is mounting, policing time and resources are being expended on peaceful individuals like Livia who simply and peacefully offered conversations.
‘No genuinely free and democratic society criminalises it citizens for exercising their right to freedom of speech, especially when such speech is nothing more than a harmless and consensual conversation’.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council declined to comment due to the ongoing proceedings.
