(LifeSiteNews) — The pro-life organization 40 Days for Life will continue to assemble and pray peacefully despite proposed restriction of prayer vigils in front of abortion mills in Germany.
“Even in view of this discriminatory and intolerant attitude towards public and peaceful prayer meetings, our response remains peaceful prayer,” Managing Director of 40 Days for Life International, Tomislav Cunovic, wrote in a press release. “We, therefore, invite all people of good and peaceful will to join our prayer concern, ‘40 Days for Life’, either in front of abortion clinics, at home, or in churches.”
On January 24, the left-wing German government presented a draft bill that seeks to ban “sidewalk harassment” of women in front of abortion clinics. The proposed law is aimed at pro-lifers praying outside abortion mills and rests on the unfounded assumption that some of them are “harassing” pregnant women. The German government admitted in a recent response to a parliamentary inquiry that it has no “concrete data” on how many cases of “harassment” of pregnant women had occurred.
READ: German gov’t moves to restrict pro-life activism in front of abortion facilities
“The recent accusation by the Family Minister Lisa Paus (Green Party) in the media, claiming that the demonstrations pose a danger to pregnant women, is not true,” Cunovic stated in the press release.
“So far, there has not been a single incident at these demonstrations where pregnant women were actively approached, harassed, or otherwise pressured.”
“This is known to the authorities, the police, and the courts, and is thus documented,” the statement continues. “Therefore, last year, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig declared a general ban on prayer and assembly within shouting and sight distance of Pro Familia in Pforzheim to be unlawful, as it disproportionately interferes with the right to freedom of assembly of the praying people.”
“Considering this current court decision of the highest German administrative court, buffer zones around abortion organizations and clinics – as proposed in the draft law of January 24, 2024, to amend the Pregnancy Conflict Act – would be impermissible. As such, this legislative initiative is doomed to fail in its current form, as it blatantly ignores the existing factual and legal situation.”
Cunovic told LifeSiteNews in January that the proposed ban on “sidewalk harassment” is mostly “a big media show” as it “restricts behavior that is not permitted anyway” under current German criminal law.
The German lawyer said “buffer zones” that were introduced in the United Kingdom would be unconstitutional in Germany and that attempts to completely ban peaceful prayer and assembly in front of abortion clinics would be revoked by the courts.
READ: UK court upholds ‘buffer zone’ against pro-life vigils at abortion facilities
Cunovic pointed out that the depiction of pro-lifers in the mainstream media and by the leftist German government could not be further from the truth since it is not pregnant women who need police protection but rather pro-lifers who have been attacked by violent extremists multiple times during prayer vigils.
“In Frankfurt am Main, these prayer meetings could often only take place under police protection for years,” he wrote.
Felix Böllmann, Director of European Advocacy at ADF International, criticized the proposed law for being imprecise and vague.
“Peaceful prayer gatherings should be protected by the state, not fought against. The federal government wants to ban something but doesn’t know what or why,” Böllmann said.
“This only creates confusion, both among law-abiding citizens who are committed to a good cause and among police officers and regulatory officials who would then have to implement the vague prohibitions on the ground,” he added.