RT-Engels: 26-05-2025,
State Department officials reportedly met with British anti-abortion activists over concerns that their rights to free speech were being violated
US officials recently travelled to the UK to meet with local anti-abortion campaigners who Washington believes face retribution for expressing their views, The Telegraph reported on Saturday. The paper described the move as evidence of Washington’s desire to “intervene in domestic British affairs.”
In March, the State Department dispatched a delegation from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), to meet with officials from the Foreign Office and communications regulator Ofcom to “affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe.”
The talks, which also overlapped with separate UK-US trade negotiations, focused on Britain’s new online safety act and its potential consequences for freedom of speech.
However, the five-member US team also quietly met with British activists who had been arrested for protesting outside abortion clinics, the article said. The US officials also reportedly attended an event held at a “nondescript” office block where campaigners were present.
“The visit is the latest sign of the Trump administration’s willingness to intervene in domestic British affairs,” The Telegraph noted.
While the paper did not provide details on whom the US officials met, Washington has sounded the alarm over several controversial cases where the right to free speech in the UK may have been violated.