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.
March 5, 2025
US anti-abortion group has started a series of Lent protests outside a Glasgow hospital but says it will not break Scotland's new buffer zone law.
Campaigners from 40 Days For Life have pledged to stay outside the 200m (656ft) safe access zone around clinics.
Last month a 74-year-old woman became the first person in Scotland to be arrested for protesting near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
'They think sending women to England is perfectly reasonable,' say campaigners as lack of abortion care in Scotland drives women south of the border
Greg Barradale
3 Mar 2025
When one 16-year-old girl in Scotland found out she was pregnant at 23 weeks, the “fear and shame” of her situation led her to contemplate suicide. Her family were anti-abortion, so her boyfriend’s mum had to take her to London for treatment at a BPAS clinic.
Another teenager, who discovered she was having a cryptic pregnancy after her contraceptive injection failed, vomited on herself out of shock when told she would have to travel to England to get an abortion. The journey cost her thousands of pounds.
Continued: https://www.bigissue.com/life/health/surgical-abortions-care-scotland-england-women-health/
The 40 Days for Life campaign group confirmed that it plans to hold a series of 'prayer vigils' outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in March and April despite Scotland's newly established buffer zone laws.
By Ruth Suter, Craig Meighan, PA Scotland
24 FEB 2025
Pro-choice campaigners have hit out at a US group's "shameful" plans to stage anti-abortion protests outside a Glasgow hospital for over a month.
The Texas-founded 40 Days for Life hosts demonstrations around the world and has announced intentions to hold "prayer vigils" in clear view of the maternity unit at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow.
Continued: https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/shameful-anti-abortion-protesters-slammed-31069308
Jody Harrison
Sun 23 February 2025
An American anti-abortion group planning a series of protests outside a Scottish hospital has backed down following an arrest at one of its protests. 40 Days For Life said its members will stay now stay outside the 200-metre exclusion zone in place around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
The group is planning to hold “vigils” on Hardgate Road, across from the hospital, from March 5 until April 13. However, it has pledged not to break the country’s laws around buffer zones while doing so.
Continued; https://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-anti-abortion-group-pledges-004000020.html
Feb 23, 2025
By Lucy Grieve, co-founder of Back of Scotland
I co-founded the Back Off Scotland campaign as an undergraduate student in 2020 following a concerning surge in anti-abortion protests taking place outside medical facilities providing abortion care.
In the five years that have elapsed since, members of the campaign have, intermittently, been subjected to a handful of threatening communications.
These have involved threats of litigation, accusations of murder, and we have even received menacing phone calls from anti-abortion activists in the middle of the night.
Continued: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24956613.we-faced-torrent-abuse-jd-vances-abortion-falsehoods/
Feb 20, 2025
David Wallace Lockhart & Angus Cochrane, BBC Scotland News
A 74-year-old woman has become the first person to be arrested and charged under a Scottish law banning protests outside abortion clinics.
She was arrested close to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and was charged in connection with breach of an exclusion zone.
Officers removed a sign from the area - which had been held by the woman who was arrested - that read "coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want".
16th February, 2025
By Gemma Clark
I HAVE been campaigning for better abortion rights in Scotland for several years.
In 2022, I petitioned Parliament for decriminalisation and the government responded by affirming that abortion is, first and foremost, a healthcare matter.
It has since established an expert working group, which felt like a significant victory for our small country against the backdrop of a global attack on women’s rights.
Continued: https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24939621.scotland-failing-women-girls-comes-abortion/
US vice-president’s comments, part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe, called inaccurate and misogynistic
Alexandra Topping
Sat 15 Feb 2025
JD Vance has been labelled an “extremist” after he launched a broadside against the UK’s efforts to protect women seeking an abortion.
The US vice-president’s criticisms of UK and Scottish policies on safe access zones around abortion clinics – part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe on Friday – were derided as inaccurate and misogynistic by a number of groups, politicians and governments.
Heidi Stewart, the chief executive of Bpas, the UK’s leading provider of abortion services, said safe zones – buffer areas of 150 metres around abortion clinics designed to stop women being harassed with leaflets, shown pictures of foetuses, or having to pass by vigils – were vital to protect women’s access to essential healthcare in an “overwhelmingly pro-choice country”.
Sep 24, 2024
The MSP responsible for the introduction of buffer zones near abortion clinics has hailed the first day of the new legislation as "crucial".
Green MSP Gillian Mackay was behind the bill which prevents anti-abortion protesters from gathering within 200m (656ft) of clinics where the procedure is carried out.
The zones, which are now live, were introduced as a result of Mackay’s Safe Access Zones Scotland Act, which was passed in June with the support of 118 MSPs from across the Chamber.
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