Yesterday in Brussels, Belgian police arrested Lois McLatchie Miller, a Senior Legal Communications Officer with ADF International, and Billboard Chris, a Canadian child protection advocate, for peacefully holding a sign that read: “Children are never born in the wrong body.”
An angry mob surrounded them, yet it was the peaceful pair—not the agitators—who police arrested.
They were transported to separate police stations, strip-searched, and detained for several hours. Ultimately, no charges were filed. But even after admitting no crime had been committed, police announced that the signs they had carried – signs peacefully expressing a viewpoint -would be destroyed.
Let that sink in: No charges. No conviction. But property confiscated and destroyed by the government - all for the “crime” of expressing an inconvenient truth in public.
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This happened in Brussels - the very heart of the European Union, not Beijing. In Europe, not North Korea. And it should alarm every American - especially Christians and pro-life advocates.
This is just the latest episode in a disturbing trend sweeping Western Europe. Peaceful, moral, fact-based speech is being punished under the guise of public order or tolerance.
In the United Kingdom, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested - twice - for silently praying outside an abortion facility. Dr. Dermot Kearney faced suspension and investigation for helping women who regretted taking the first abortion pill by offering abortion pill reversal treatment -even though the women he helped thanked him for it. Only after a lengthy legal battle was he fully vindicated.
In Germany and Spain, individuals have been fined for offering support to women facing unexpected pregnancies. And now, in Belgium’s capital, citizens are being arrested, searched, and stripped of their rights - and property - for simply affirming biological reality and the dignity of children.
This is not hypothetical. This is happening now.
In America, our First Amendment protects freedom of speech, religion, and assembly - not as privileges, but as rights given by God and protected by government. The Founders recognized that when government becomes the gatekeeper of truth, freedom dies.
But let’s be honest: the same ideological forces at work in Europe are alive and well here.
Pro-life sidewalk counselors in the U.S. have been arrested under the federal FACE Act for peacefully advocating for women and their unborn children. Others have faced online censorship, vandalism, and government pressure simply for speaking Biblical truth or holding traditional moral views.
But we are not helpless - and we are not without precedent.
For decades, Heartbeat International and the pregnancy help movement have modeled what it means to love boldly, speak truthfully, and serve compassionately. We’ve done so in the face of opposition, misunderstanding, and unjust scrutiny. And still, we’ve grown stronger. Our light has pierced through the darkness of cultural confusion. We’ve shown the world that you can be both unapologetically pro-life and relentlessly compassionate.
Now, with a more religious-liberty-friendly administration in place, we have a renewed opportunity—not just to defend our freedoms, but to affirm them confidently and expand their reach.
Let’s not wait for a crackdown to wake up. Let’s act while the door is open.
Now is the time to be bold. Speak truth in the public square. Pray without apology. Live your faith out loud. Support organizations that uphold life, liberty, and the dignity of every person. And elect leaders who recognize that freedom of speech is not a loophole - it is the bedrock of a free and virtuous society.
Tweet This: Now is the time to be bold. Speak truth in the public square. Pray without apology. Live your faith. Support organizations that uphold life.
And yes, hold our leaders accountable. Even in America, we must remain vigilant. If peaceful signs can be confiscated in Brussels, they can be banned in Boston. If truth can be criminalized there, it can be marginalized here.
Let the arrest and violation of Lois McLatchie Miller and Billboard Chris’s freedom of speech serve as both a warning and a wake-up call. Freedom is fragile. Truth is under fire. But with courage and conviction, we can reclaim the ground where our freedoms are at stake.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
