London – British anti-abortion activist Isabel Vaughn-Spruce said she did not protest as she stood silently in a protected zone outside an abortion clinic near her church in Birmingham, England.
“I internal reason that of course silent thoughts should still be allowed to happen in that zone. my prayer. So I went and prayed silently outside the abortion center, the first time only when it was closed, and I was arrested for that, twice.” Vaughn-Spruce told CBS News.
UK law establishes protected zones around abortion clinics. They are meant to protect women seeking treatment from protesters. Zone boundaries are marked with signs around facilities that provide abortion services.
Vaughn-Spruce said that, while in custody, she reached out to a legal group with American roots – Alliance Defending Freedom International – for help. In the end, he was not blamed for the mistake.
“Standing for these issues and for freedom, whether it’s in America or another country, it’s basically the same. Being a root organization, in a way, whether it’s America or England, it doesn’t make any difference to me,” said Vaughn-Spruce. “The work they (ADF) are doing is incredible.”
What is Alliance Defending Freedom?
ADF International UK is a UK-registered charity supported by donations from ADF in the United States, according to its financial disclosure.
ADF, launched in 1994 and, with a network of over 4,500 lawyers, describes itself as “one of the leading Christian law firms committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life .”
It provides legal support to those whose cases are relevant to the cause.
ADF attorneys argued on behalf of plaintiffs seeking a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone used nationwide, but the court rejected that argument in a the verdict was handed down Thursday, upholding access to medicine. The group also supported the Mississippi case that eventually went to the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
ADF says it has played a role in at least 74 Supreme Court victories in total and represents 15 winning parties at America’s highest court.
The ADF’s fast-growing international operations
“I think Americans are very aware of what American organizations are exporting in terms of rights policies to other countries,” Heidi Beirich, founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told CBS News. “What is happening is a very strong right-wing movement that is built to target specific communities that is emerging, and that is affecting human rights around the world.”
Beirich previously worked as an extremism expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which listed ADF as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group in 2016.
The SPLC said it made the designation because ADF, “has supported the idea that being LGBTQ+ should be a crime in the U.S. and abroad and believes that (it) is okay to put LGBTQ+ people in prison for engaging in consensual sex. It supports the law.” which requires the forced sterilization of transgender Europeans.”
A representative of ADF International UK told CBS News that the group rejects the characterization of a hate group.
ADF International has established offices in European power centers including Geneva, Brussels, Strasbourg and London.
“It brought litigation in the European Court of Human Rights. They are active in Latin America,” said Beirich. “I say millions of dollars will be an effort, not only to change the United States to a Christian nationalist vision, but now other countries, including the UK and the EU.”
According to financial records from 2022 to 2023, the UK branch of ADF International experienced an increase in income during the year by 514,729 British pounds (about $655,036) to 1,068,552 ($1,360,079). His expenses also increased by 220,751 pounds ($280,982) in the same period to 993,118 ($1,264,090).
According to the group’s financial disclosure, the money is used to provide analysis and legal briefs to several members of the British Parliament, participate in public comment, and “help those who may be prevented from living and worshiping according to Christian principles and ethics, by, for example, participating in local level or with significant decision makers.”
ADF has ties to some of the most prominent conservative names on the American political landscape.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is a former attorney for the group. While working for ADF, Johnson unsuccessfully lobbied for a 2004 Louisiana ballot measure that would have banned same-sex marriage, according to the Associated Press. In a 2003 op-ed for a local Louisiana newspaper, Johnson wrote that homosexuality was an “abnormal lifestyle” and “a dangerous sexual act.” In the piece’s byline, Johnson was identified as an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, formerly the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Chief Justice Amy Coney Barrett also gave at least five paid speeches between 2011 and 2015 for the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a program for young conservative lawyers run and funded by ADF.
During his 2020 confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett was asked about his ties to the group. When asked when he found out that the Blackstone Legal Fellowship was administered by ADF, Barrett replied: “To the best of my recollection, I found out that ADF funded the Blackstone program when I received an honorarium for my presentation, or maybe when I saw the signature line in an email.”
Barrett told the committee he had “no specific knowledge” of decades of efforts by the ADF against LGBTQ+ rights, including opposition to same-sex marriage.
ADF global operations
ADF International initially agreed to provide a spokesperson for an interview with CBS News, but canceled twice at the last minute and then pulled out. When CBS News later sent questions to the group, they responded with a four-paragraph statement that said: “Despite the nonsense of those who disagree with our values, there is nothing strange about the money we receive – we comply with all established rules of charity.”
“Our UK office is staffed by local team members who work to uphold human rights in the UK – including, among others, freedom of speech and freedom of religion,” the statement said. “As a global organisation, we receive funding from many countries, as well as many UK charities on both sides of the abortion debate.”
Beirich said Americans should be aware of ADF’s activities abroad because of the group’s effectiveness in helping change laws through the courts in the US.
“This is a winning organization, and they’re using the courts to enforce their policies,” he told CBS News. “We need to pay attention to them, because they have changed American society on the basis of these rules, and it may happen elsewhere.”
