I couldn’t help thinking of Franz Kafka’s surreal novel ‘The Trial’ the other day. ‘The Trial’ tells the deeply disturbing story of ‘Joseph K’, a man who found himself being arrested one morning even though he had done nothing wrong. It’s fiction of course but real life can be as equally surreal as Charity volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has discovered to her cost.

Vaughan-Spruce, who is due to appear in court in February, was arrested just before Christmas for failing to comply with a Public Space Protection Order. The PSPO, also known as a “buffer zone” was put in place by Birmingham City Council and prohibits prayer and protesting, among other activities, within a specified area around an abortion clinic.

So, what was Vaughan Spruce doing? As I understand it, she was simply standing quietly outside the abortion clinic. She was not holding any signs or making any visible form of protest but when questioned she did admit that she might have been praying in her head! Thankfully the chilling scene was captured on camera and has already been viewed more than a million times on Twitter.

Following her arrest, Vaughan-Spruce has been reported as saying: “It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. Censorship zones purport to ban harassment, which is already illegal.

“Nobody should ever be subject to harassment. But what I did was the furthest thing from harmful – I was exercising my freedom of thought, my freedom of religion, inside the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalised for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK.”

Truth, it’s said, can be stranger than fiction. This remarkable tale would suggest that it can also be infinitely more chilling too because it suggests that the day of ‘thought crime’ has finally arrived. It makes me wonder where we are heading next.

What if a church was to find itself located within a ‘buffer zone’ for example? Would the police be authorised to invade their prayer meetings to ensure that no one was praying about abortion, even if they were doing it silently? Would those attending a prayer meeting be lined up to give an account of the things they have been praying about? It sounds ridiculous of course, but who would ever have thought we would have got to this point anyway? As one commentator has said “No one should ever be arrested for silent prayer. Not in the UK, not anywhere. Regardless of your position on abortion, this is wrong.”

I read recently that MPs are currently considering Clause 9 of the Public Order Bill, which would prohibit pro-life individuals from ‘influencing’, ‘advising’, ‘persuading’, ‘informing’, ‘occupying space’ or ‘expressing opinion’ near abortion facilities. Again, where will it stop? Will the day come when we will not be able to express our opinions within any space occupied by someone who has had or is contemplating an abortion for example?

I am a ‘prolifer’ because I believe it is a life and death issue, but I am well aware of the pain and the grief associated with abortions and I believe we should pray for all involved in this tragic business. Love not hate should be our watchword whatever stance we take. But free speech and silent prayer are life and death issues too, because if we ban those we will soon be mourning the death of our democratic freedoms as well.