Trump says no free trade without attacks on abortion rights

Abortion Rights UK supporters protest against the ‘March for Life’ last September (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Trump administration officials say they are “concerned about freedom of expression” in Britain. But they aren’t rallying behind protesters arrested for marching against Israel’s genocide, or climate campaigners locked up for opposing fossil fuels.

Instead, the US bureau of democracy, human rights and labour wants to defend bigots’ right to harass and intimidate people going into abortion clinics. 

It’s an extraordinary intervention at a time when Donald Trump’s administration weighs up which countries to hit with tariffs.

The bureau announced that it is monitoring the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was charged with a public order offence for protesting outside an abortion clinic. The judge is expected to deliver a verdict on the case on Friday.

Tossici-Bolt is the leader of the Bournemouth branch of anti-abortion organisation 40 Days for Life.

She stood 50 metres away from a branch of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) in 2023 silently holding up a sign saying, “Here to talk if you want to.” She refused to leave, despite being repeatedly asked to do so.

Prosecutors argue that her actions were in breach of a public space protection order at the time.

The government introduced stricter rules last year that placed 150 metre “buffer zones” outside abortion clinics where protest is not allowed.

The law is ambiguous about what counts as a protest. Bigots such as Tossici-Bolt can claim they are silently offering advice or that they are praying. It creates a risk that they could be allowed to do so near clinics, while pro-choice counter-protesters are kept outside the buffer zone.

That’s not what worries the right wing. The Telegraph newspaper even says it “threatens to jeopardise Britain’s special relationship with the US”.

The comments from the US administration come after vice president JD Vance complained in February that religious freedoms are under attack in Britain. He claimed that people living close to Scottish abortion clinics were being prevented from praying in their own homes.

Vance is a hypocrite who only defends freedom of expression when it suits his far right agenda.  

The vast majority of people in Britain are in favour of abortion rights—and so are most people in the US. Groups such as 40 Days for Life don’t stand outside abortion clinics to offer guidance and conversation.

Abortion Rights UK rightly said that these groups “are part of a wider anti-abortion agenda that seeks to intimidate, shame, and deter people from accessing essential healthcare.”

The campaign group called on the Labour government not to allow Trump to “interfere” with laws in Britain.

Keir Starmer remains determined to cosy up to Trump and the state criminal justice system are institutionally sexist,

Let’s beat the bigots by mobilising the pro-choice majority to defend and extend the right to choose.