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.
Clive Johnston disputes the charges on a devolution point and under the European Convention on Human Rights
Paul Higgins
Fri Mar 21 2025
A retired church pastor on Friday denied conducting an illegal protest at an abortion safe access zone in a Coleraine hospital.
Appearing on behalf of Clive Johnston at Coleraine Magistrates Court, defence counsel Aaron Thompson entered pleas of not guilty to the two charges on behalf of the 76-year-old retired pastor, revealing that the defendant disputes the charges on a devolution point and under article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Democratic state lawmakers are trying to bolster protections, but those efforts are imperiled by legal fights.
By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Amanda Friedman
03/19/2025
Abortion rights supporters across the country are scrambling to strengthen protections for clinics in response to moves by the Trump administration that they believe will put providers and patients in danger.
Democratic lawmakers have introduced bills in Illinois, Michigan, New York and elsewhere to restrict demonstrations outside of clinics, increase criminal penalties for people who harass doctors and patients, or allocate more funds for abortion providers to buy security cameras, bulletproof glass and other protections.
Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/19/abortion-clinic-safety-trump-pardons-00234319
Mar 17, 2025
Notes from Poland
A court has upheld a decision by the city of Toruń to dissolve an anti-abortion protest because it featured a graphic image purporting to show an aborted foetus.
The organiser of the protest has condemned the ruling, which she says “violates the constitution, the law, freedom of speech and freedom of religion”.
But the city’s mayor welcomed the court’s decision, saying that, while he supports free speech, it must be expressed in a manner consistent with the law and without violating the dignity of others.
March 10, 2025
Micki Burdick, Assistant Professor of Women & Gender Studies, University of Delaware
Soon after taking office for a second time, President Donald Trump pardoned anti-abortion activists who had blockaded and restricted access to the entrance of a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., in October 2020.
These protesters were convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Protesting outside clinics is a way for conservative anti-abortion activists to directly influence access to reproductive health care.
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.
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 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".
Anti-abortion campaigners cheer as JD Vance brands safe zones an attack on ‘liberties of religious Britons’
Shanti Das
Sun 16 Feb 2025
Rachael Clarke remembers life before buffer zones. Almost every day, the head of staff at the UK’s biggest abortion provider would get emails from staff worried about protesters outside clinics – and women crying in the waiting room.
Some of the protesters had huge placards with graphic images of foetuses. Others held candlelit vigils and said prayers. One scattered baby clothes in the bushes. “We had everything from people telling women that having an abortion was putting their baby in a meat grinder to people following nurses down the road in the dark telling them they were killing babies,” says Clarke.
The Canadian Press
January 31, 2025
A new Manitoba law restricting protests near clinics and hospitals where abortions are performed is to take effect Saturday.
The NDP government introduced a bill last year that creates buffer zones of between 50 and 150 metres around such health facilities, as well as the homes of abortion providers.
Inside those zones, people are not allowed to block access, attempt to dissuade people from getting an abortion or harass or intimidate individuals.
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