Netherlands – Minister blocks plan for protest buffer zones around abortion clinics

Friday, 19 December 2025

Plans to create legally mandated buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect visitors from protesters have been halted after last-minute opposition from BBB Vice Prime Minister Mona Keijzer, sources told RTL. The move affects proposals by ministers for Interior and Kingdom Relations, Rijkaart (BBB), and Justice and Security, Van Oosten (VVD).

The proposal, submitted last Friday to the ministerial council, aimed to establish zones around clinics where demonstrations would be restricted. “Women must be guaranteed a quiet passage to an abortion clinic,” the ministers wrote in an unpublished letter seen by RTL. Currently, such protections depend on decisions by individual mayors.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/12/19/minister-blocks-plan-protest-buffer-zones-around-abortion-clinics

19.12.2025

News

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice protesters

Scotland – Anti-abortion campaigner charged over clinic protest

Dec 19, 2025

Rose Docherty became the first person charged under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act after holding up a placard outside the facility in Glasgow in May, and again in September.

Under the laws, introduced in 2024, activities which could "influence or alarm others around hospitals and clinics where terminations are carried out" are prohibited.

Ms Docherty, 75, made no plea during the initial hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Friday and will appear again on 13 January.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4qp0v2zv1o

19.12.2025

NETHERLANDS – Mayors can’t ban protests at abortion clinics, but can set limits: Council of State

Wednesday, 3 December 2025

Mayors can’t ban people from demonstrating at abortion clinics, but they can impose restrictions to prevent disorder, the Council of State ruled in four cases on Wednesday. For example, mayors can prohibit protests directly in front of the clinic’s entrance, as long as the location where demonstrators are permitted is within sight and hearing distance from the clinic, the Council of State said.

Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State issued rulings on four demonstrations at abortion clinics - one in Groningen, one in Amsterdam, and two in Heemstede. In all four cases, the mayor banned protesters from demonstrating directly in front of the clinic’s entrance to prevent disorder. The protesters disagreed with this.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/12/03/mayors-cant-ban-protests-abortion-clinics-can-set-limits-council-state

03.12.2025

News

anti-choice protesters

UK – Police ‘can’t decide’ if anti-abortion campaigner should be charged for silent prayer

Catholic charity worker says someone’s thoughts ‘cannot possibly be a crime’ and her ‘punishment has clearly been the process’

Martin Evans
30 November 2025

Police and prosecutors are “frozen with indecision” over whether to charge a woman for silently praying near an abortion clinic, campaigners have claimed.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic charity worker, is being investigated by West Midlands Police for allegedly breaching a new buffer-zone law intended to prevent people protesting near abortion centres.

Continued: https://archive.is/7NIzF
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/30/police-no-decide-anti-abortion-campaigner-charged/)

30.11.2025

News

ADF International

anti-choice protesters

buffer zones

Independent Office for Police Conduct

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce

UK – How Washington Turned NHS Abortion Into A Diplomatic Human Rights Cudgel

26 NOV 2025
Impact International

The decision to classify NHS‑funded abortions as a “Human Rights” violation marks a dramatic shift in how Washington uses its flagship Human Rights reporting to judge allied domestic healthcare systems. Through the annual country report, the US now treats “state‑sponsored” abortion, including routine NHS care in England and Wales, as a breach on par with other alleged abuses, transforming a settled area of UK health Policy into evidence of government wrongdoing. At the heart of this move is an attempt to recast abortion, along with other social questions, as a core Human Rights battleground rather than a matter of domestic legislative compromise.

Continued: https://impactpolicies.org/news/676/how-washington-turned-nhs-abortion-into-a-diplomatic-human-rights-cudgel

26.11.2025

Commentary

Abortion Act 1967

Adam Smith‑Connor

anti-choice protesters

Is British politics immune to US-style rightwing Christianity? We’re about to find out

Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are increasingly espousing Christian ‘values’, and a wealthy US legal group is becoming influential – this could have dire consequences

Lamorna Ash
Tue 25 Nov 2025

Earlier this year, not long after Tommy Robinson embraced evangelical Christianity while in prison, the then Conservative MP Danny Kruger spoke in parliament about the need for a restoration of Britain through the “recovery of a Christian politics”. Less than two months later, Kruger joined Reform, and shortly after that, James Orr, a vociferously conservative theologian who has been described as JD Vance’s “English philosopher king”, was appointed as one of Reform’s senior advisers. The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, now frequently invokes the need for a return to “Judeo-Christian” values.

The British right is increasingly invoking the Christian tradition: the question is what it hopes to gain from doing so.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/british-politics-us-rightwing-christianity-nigel-farage-tommy-robinson-adf

The worrying rise of US anti-abortion rhetoric is in full force – how deep is Reform UK’s involvement?

Money is pouring into anti-abortion campaigns in Britain, and it seems Nigel Farage’s party isn’t pushing back…

By Jennifer Savin
20 November 2025

There’s been a lot of talk recently suggesting that we need to keep a close eye on abortion rights here in the UK. With whisperings that what happened in America – the toppling of Roe v Wade, which left a 10-year-old denied an abortion – could happen here, especially if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party makes it into power at the next election.

While nothing is guaranteed, it’s a scary thought – particularly as we made great strides with abortion care this year.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a69468983/reform-uk-nigel-farage-abortion/

SCOTLAND – Anti-abortion campaigner arrested for second time

BBC
Sep 27, 2025

A 75-year-old woman has been arrested for a second time for taking part in an anti-abortion protest outside a hospital in Glasgow. Rose Docherty was detained on Hardgate Road, outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, on Wednesday while carrying a placard which stated "Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want."

She was arrested, charged and released on bail under a new law that created buffer zones outside Scottish abortion clinics.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq65q455gn0o

27.09.2025

News

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act

buffer zones

Gillian Mackay

Queen Elizabeth University hospital

Netherlands – Utrecht Mayor presses for law to block anti-abortion protests at clinic doors

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma is calling on the Dutch government to introduce national legislation banning anti-abortion protests directly in front of clinics, after the highest administrative court allowed activists to demonstrate at the doors of a Utrecht clinic.

According to NOS, the ruling is related to the Christian group Jezus Leeft, which the court allowed to protest directly outside the clinic with slogans such as “abortion is murder.” Utrecht had attempted to enforce a buffer zone but was overruled.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/09/16/utrecht-mayor-presses-law-block-anti-abortion-protests-clinic-doors

UK – US Christian conservative groups escalate support for UK anti-abortion protesters

Phoebe Davis

Saturday 16 August 2025

Network of well-funded bodies backs cases in UK after JD Vance’s challenge on buffer zones outside abortion clinics

The Trump administration has warned the UK that “buffer zones” that criminalise protest outside abortion clinics represent an “egregious violation” of free speech and threaten the “shared values that underpin US-UK relations”.

The US escalation in intervening in the prosecution of British anti-abortion protesters comes after the White House took the highly unusual step of criticising the UK for a “worsening” human rights situation, citing “safe access zones” around clinics as an area of concern.

Continued: https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/us-christian-conservative-groups-escalate-support-for-uk-anti-abortion-protesters