Scotland – Paramedic jailed for secretly giving woman drug to abort their child

July 7, 2025
Catriona Renton, BBC Scotland News

A paramedic who secretly gave a pregnant woman an abortion drug, killing their unborn child, has been jailed for 10 years and six months. Stephen Doohan, who was a clinical team leader with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), administered the drug after he found out the woman was pregnant with his baby.

The woman, who did not know Doohan was married when they were in a relationship, suffered a miscarriage after the 33-year-old crushed pills into a syringe and injected her as she lay in bed at his Edinburgh home in 2023.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qxneddqn2o

07.07.2025

News

intimate partner violence

Judge Lord Colbeck

reproductive coercion

reproductive violence

Scott McKenzie 'Mark Stewart'Fiona Kirkby

Scottish Ambulance Service

Edinburgh abortion clinic set for fresh round of harassment from US religious group – despite buffer zone laws

Ruth Suter & Chloe Goodall
Fri 4 July 2025

An Edinburgh clinic is set to endure a fresh round of anti-abortion harassment from an American religious group despite new laws designed to prevent protests taking place near clinics.

The Texas-based group, 40 Days for Life, announced online that it will hold a series of "prayer vigils" near Chalmers Clinic in September. The activity is expected to last for 40 days and will commence from September 24 with the last "vigil" to take place on November 2.

Continued: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/edinburgh-abortion-clinic-set-fresh-180623994.html

Edinburgh woman speaks out after secretly being given abortion drug by vile paramedic

Sally Hind & Cara Blackhall
Mon 19 May 2025

An Edinburgh woman has spoken out after she was secretly given an abortion drug by a paramedic to kill their unborn child.

Stephen Doohan is facing jail after he concocted a sick plan to end the woman's pregnancy when she told him she was having his baby, reports The Daily Record.

Continued: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/edinburgh-woman-speaks-secretly-being-075452107.html

19.05.2025

News

reproductive coercion

Scott McKenzie

Scottish Ambulance Service

Scotland – Paramedic secretly injected pregnant woman with abortion drug to kill unborn child

Stephen Doohan, 33, concocted the plan after the woman he met while married told him she was having his baby.

STV News
May 17, 2025

A paramedic secretly gave a pregnant woman an abortion drug killing her unborn child. Stephen Doohan concocted the plan after she told him she was having his baby.

The 33-year-old – who was a clinical team leader with the Scottish Ambulance Service – was married at the time. He crushed pills into a syringe before administering the medication as she lay in bed at his home in Edinburgh in 2023.

Continued: https://news.stv.tv/east-central/paramedic-secretly-injected-pregnant-woman-with-abortion-drug-to-kill-unborn-child

17.05.2025

reproductive coercion

Scottish Ambulance Service

Stephen Doohan

Europe

Scotland

Scotland – Arrested anti-abortion protester ‘willing to go to jail’

May 15, 2025

A woman who was arrested for taking part in an anti-abortion protest outside of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow has said she is prepared to go to prison over the offence.

Rose Docherty, 74, became the first person to be arrested and charged under a new law which creates buffer zones outside Scottish abortion clinics in February.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36507lw234o

15.05.2025

News

40 days for life

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act

anti-choice protesters

Dr Greg Irwin

Gillian Mackay

JD Vance

Queen Elizabeth University hospital

Scotland – Abortion buffer zone legislation not enforceable when clinics closed, police say

Monday 28 April 2025

Abortion buffer zones cannot be enforced when clinics are closed, police have said in an email seen by the PA news agency.

The legislation – which started as a member’s Bill proposed by Green MSP Gillian Mackay – enforced 200-metre exclusion zones around 30 sites in Scotland in an attempt to limit protests held outside of clinics.

But in an email between a police inspector in Glasgow and an MSP – passed to PA by a third party – the officer says legal advice from Police Scotland lawyers and the Crown Office concluded the legislation cannot be enforced when clinics are not operating.

Continued: https://www.itv.com/news/2025-04-27/abortion-buffer-zone-legislation-not-enforceable-when-clinics-closed-police-say

28.04.2025

Scottish Family Party

Scottish Government told to consider expanding abortion buffer zones around hospitals

Neil Pooran & Ryan Thom
Sat 26 April 2025

The Scottish Government must consider expanding the size of the buffer zone around a hospital where anti-abortion demonstrations are banned, the MSP behind the legislation has said.

Gillian Mackay said protesters have been gathering just outside the 200m exclusion zone around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow.

Continued: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/scottish-government-told-consider-expanding-134557615.html

26.04.2025

News

buffer zones

Gillian Mackay

Queen Elizabeth University hospital

Scottish ministers accused of failing women who cannot get later abortions

Campaigners say ‘extremely vulnerable women’ are having to travel hundreds of miles to visit English clinics

Libby Brooks, Scotland correspondent
Mon 21 Apr 2025

Campaigners have warned Scottish ministers that they are failing in their legal and moral duties as growing numbers of “extremely vulnerable women” have to travel hundreds of miles south because they cannot access later-term abortions in Scotland.

Not one of Scotland’s 14 regional health boards provide abortion care after 20 weeks except in the specific cases of foetal abnormality or threat to a woman’s life. This is despite the Scottish government promising to rectify this “explicit inequality” three years ago, and abortion being legal on broad grounds until 24 weeks across the UK.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/21/scottish-government-failing-women-who-cant-access-later-term-abortions-campaigners-say

More than 100 anti-abortion protesters target Glasgow hospital

Apr 14, 2025
By Gemma Clark

MORE than 100 anti-abortion protesters gathered near Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on Sunday evening. The event was part of the Texas-based group 40 Days for Life’s efforts to "pray to end abortion" around the world.

… Sunday's protest demonstrates just how close anti-abortion activists can still get to hospitals, and serves as a reminder of how modest the original buffer zone proposals were.

Continued: https://www.thenational.scot/news/25088171.100-anti-abortion-protesters-target-glasgow-hospital/

14.04.2025

Queen Elizabeth University hospital

safe access zones

Scottish Family Party

Scotland – Police decline to intervene as anti-abortion group ignores buffer zone

March 23, 2025
By Xander Elliards

POLICE did not respond after being called to a fringe group of anti-abortion protesters who were breaching Scotland’s buffer zone regulations.

The Scottish Family Party – who, as well as wanting to see abortion rights rolled back, oppose same-sex marriage, sperm and egg donation, and the clause banning harassment in the Equality Act – held a small-scale protest outside the public entrance to the Chalmers Centre in Edinburgh on Saturday evening.

Continued: https://www.thenational.scot/news/25030333.police-decline-intervene-anti-abortion-group-ignores-buffer-zone/