Pro-life activist Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, was found guilty in a UK court on Friday after breaching a so-called "buffer zone" near an abortion clinic. The verdict was rendered in Poole Magistrated Court. 

She was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge and will be made to pay "£20,000 towards court costs and a £26 victim surcharge," The Daily Mail reports. The buffer zone around the clinic is from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays and has been in place since October 2022.

"Buffer zones ban protests within 150 metres of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services in England and Wales and those convicted of breaking the law could face an unlimited fine," per The Daily Mail.

Tossici-Bolt stood outside the Bournemouth clinic for two days in 2023, holding up a sign that read "Here to talk, if you want." She was found to be in violation of the Public Space Protection Order. Police asked her to leave at the time, saying that a woman had felt intimidated and harassed by her standing there holding up the sign. Tossici-Bolt refused to move along.

District Judge Austin said that Tossici-Bolt's beliefs in the sanctity of life "were truly held" but that the case was about the violation of law and "not about the rights and wrongs about abortion."

"She lacks insight that her presence could have a detrimental effect on the women attending the clinic, their associates, staff and members of the public," Austin said.

"I am satisfied so that I am sure that the defendant did fail without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement of the PSPO, namely she failed to leave the safe zone on both the 2nd of March and 3rd March 2023 when asked by an authorised officer," Austin continued.

Tossici-Bolt's attorney had said, "The council hasn't produced any evidence that Ms Tossici-Bolt was in fact either observed by any service user or any other forms of harm were caused by her behaviour. My point is not that breaches can never cause harm rather that there is no evidence that Ms Tossici-Bolt's conduct did in this case."

This is one of the incidents that was brought up by Vice President JD Vance in his speech at the Munich Security Conference this year when he blasted European nations for not upholding the free speech rights of their nations' citizens.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said that while "the right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy," that does not allow for people to "harass" others. That spokesperson went on to say, "The UK has a very proud tradition of free speech over many centuries."