MSP calls for ban on abortion protests

PROTESTS, vigils and demonstrations would be banned around abortion clinics under new Holyrood legislation to protect women from harassment and distress.

A Scottish Greens MSP will introduce a private member’s Bill proposing that 150-metre ‘buffer zones’, or legally enforceable protest-free areas, be introduced in the vicinity of abortion clinics.

But the issue appears to have caused a divide in the SNP, with some backbenchers backing it while its women’s health minister said local by-laws rather than a national blanket ban are ‘the most appropriate way to tackle this issue’.

Gillian Mackay, Green MSP for Central Scotland, announced her intention to press ahead with legislation on the issue during a debate at Holyrood yesterday.

She said: ‘I believe that everyone should be able to access healthcare unimpeded, and that no one

‘Rights of people attending vigils’

should face harassment or intimidation while doing so.’ She said that leaving it to councils to act creates the risk of a ‘postcode lottery’, insisting ‘a national approach is required’.

Nationalist MSP John Mason – who said he joined a ‘gathering’ at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, which was peaceful and mainly involved people saying prayers – told MSPs that ‘someone has a duty to speak up for the baby, who has no voice’.

Women’s Health Minister Maree Todd said she understands calls for buffer zones around abortion services and does ‘sympathise’ with them.

Miss Todd added: ‘However, it is important that any action taken is proportionate and that it balances the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights] rights of people accessing healthcare and of those people attending the vigils or protests... We do need to recognise the rights of people to protest peacefully and express their views.’