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/


UK – JD Vance may disagree, but this anti-abortion activist isn’t a brutally censored dissident

The US vice-president’s avid concern for Livia Tossici-Bolt’s conviction is plain sinister
Catherine Bennett
Sun 6 Apr 2025

You know the feeling: you’re feeling sociable, why wouldn’t you make a sign saying “Here to talk, if you want to”, and head for a spot outside the nearest abortion clinic? And why wouldn’t some of its arriving patients want to pause before their appointments and satisfy your entirely innocent interest in their reproductive intentions?

This, give or take, amounted to the case by the prominent anti-abortion campaigner, Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was on Friday found guilty of twice breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). Her sign-holding outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic was, she had argued, not covered by a council-imposed safe zone, being “a mere invitation to speak”. And thus an invitation she could have happily extended to strangers just a little further from the clinic. But that did not suit Tossici-Bolt’s purpose. Nor does anything prevent her from staging anti-abortion rallies, distributing literature, or expressing her views on abortion anywhere except right in abortion patients’ faces outside clinics. These details, although similar regulations exist in parts of the US, routinely fail to surface in accounts by her prominent US supporters, with whose help Tossici-Bolt has been misrepresenting the illegal undermining of UK women’s reproductive rights as a noble quest for free speech.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/06/jd-vance-may-disagree-but-this-anti-abortion-activist-isnt-a-brutally-censored-dissident-livia-tossici-bolt


Scotland – Anti-abortion group starts Lent hospital protests

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.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20drjg3ly0o


‘Shameful’ anti-abortion protesters slammed over month-long ‘vigils’ targeting Glasgow hospital

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


US anti-abortion group pledges not to break Scotland’s buffer zones law

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


Scotland – Woman, 74, charged under abortion protest law

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".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39vky8wr0do


JD Vance decried as extremist over attack on UK abortion clinic safe zones

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”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/15/jd-vance-decried-as-extremist-over-attack-on-uk-abortion-clinic-safe-zones


Guatemala – Hidden in plain sight: The lobby group restricting rights in Latin America

Founded by members of shadowy Catholic organisation Opus Dei, the AFI has become one of Guatemala’s most influential groups

26 November 2024
OpenDemocracy

In the first half of this year, seven girls aged between 10 and 14 gave birth in Guatemala every single day.

Guatemalan law states that these 1,298 girls are the victims of sexual violence. Medical professionals say their pregnancies pose a high risk to their physical and mental health. But the Asociación la Familia Importa (AFI), Guatemala’s most influential anti-abortion organisation, has focused on preventing such girls from having abortions at any cost – and it is succeeding.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/afi-guatemala-opus-dei-anti-abortion-restrict-rights-latin-america/


UK – Anti-abortion activists undeterred by law change

Oct 31, 2024
Steve Jones, BBC News, West Yorkshire

Anti-abortion activists have said a new law banning them from demonstrating outside a Leeds clinic will not stop them campaigning on the issue. About 40 Christians have taken it in turns to campaign outside the MSI Reproductive Choices clinic for 12 hours a day since 25 September.

However, from Thursday it will become illegal to protest within a 150-metre radius of abortion clinics in England and Wales. Ailish McEntee, a safeguarding midwife for MSI, said any "anti-choice activity" outside clinics could have a "significant impact" on service users and staff.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce89nkg54xyo


Scotland – Abortion protests near clinics banned as buffer zones law goes live

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.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98y1ryd6d3o