State Dept. says it is monitoring case of UK woman facing charges for holding sign in abortion zone

The United States' State Department announced this week it is monitoring the case of a British woman who was put on trial for holding a sign offering counseling to women outside an abortion facility in the United Kingdom.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor (DRL) a State Department bureau which supports individual liberty and democratic freedoms across the world, issued a statement on Livia Tossici-Bolt's case on Sunday, ahead of her upcoming verdict.

"U.S.-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," the DRL bureau posted to X.

"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 protect freedom of expression," the statement continued.

RETIRED BRITISH WOMAN ON TRIAL FOR HOLDING SIGN OFFERING TO TALK TO WOMAN CONSIDERING ABORTION

A view of United States Department of State logo in Washington D.C., United States on January 9, 2023.  (Celal Gunes / Anadolu Agency)

According to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, which is supporting Tossici-Bolt's legal defense, her verdict will be handed down by District Judge Orla Austin on Friday, April 4. 

Tossici-Bolt, 64, was holding a sign that read "Here to talk, if you want" near an abortion facility in Bournemouth, England, when she was approached by local authorities, the legal group said.

She was told she had violated the local government's public spaces protection order (PSPO), which creates a 500-foot "buffer zone" around facilities which provide abortions. 

Attempts to obstruct access to these facilities or influence someone's decision are prohibited under the law.

Livia Tossici-Bolt said she held a sign offering "consensual conversation" before she was approached. (ADF International)

Tossici-Bolt responded with gratitude to the State Department's announcement and called on her government to protect freedom of expression.

"I am grateful to the U.S. 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 defense," she said in a statement. "Peaceful expression is a fundamental right—no one should be criminalized for harmless offers to converse."

"It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the U.S. feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties," she added.

In February, the case of another pro-life Brit charged with violating an abortion buffer zone drew the attention of Vice President JD Vance.

UK MAN ARRESTED FOR PRAYING OUTSIDE ABORTION CLINIC PRAISES VP VANCE FOR BRINGING ATTENTION TO CASE

UK man Adam Smith-Connor was convicted for praying silently near an abortion clinic and ordered to pay prosecution costs amounting to about $12,000. (ADF UK)

UK Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was found guilty in October of breaching an abortion buffer zone after he stood outside an abortion facility with his head bowed in silent prayer. He was ordered to pay £9,000 (or nearly $12,000 USD) to the prosecution.

Vance highlighted the case as he blasted "Soviet"-style European censorship in an address to European leaders at the Munich Security Conference last month.

"The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs," the vice president said.

"I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no," Vance said.

ADF International has represented several Christians in the UK who have faced charges for praying in abortion buffer zones.

Tossici-Bolt's verdict will be handed down Friday by the same judge who handled Smith-Connor's case, ADF International said.

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Fox News' Taylor Penley contributed to this report.