Pledge to speed up abortion protest ‘buffers’

PROGRESS on protest buffer zones outside abortion clinics will be made “as soon as possible”, Nicola

Sturgeon has said.

There have been renewed calls for buffer zones outside clinics in Scotland, after it emerged the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling legalising abortion across the US may be overturned.

The Scottish Government has set up a working group on buffer zones, although there have been calls for it to move faster.

On Tuesday, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-hamilton said ministers had “stalled and dissembled” on buffer zones.

The First Minister was asked about the issue when she spoke to journalists yesterday.

Asked how long the working group would take, she said: “People know my views on abortion, and people know my views on the right of women to control their own bodies and the right to choose.

“There is no part of me that would want to slow this down, so I want to make progress as quickly as possible.”

Legal considerations around buffer zones could not be ignored, she said.

Those who wish to protest outside abortion clinics should instead do so outside parliament, she said, adding: “Don’t go to a hospital and make what is inevitably a very traumatic experience for a woman harder than it already is.”

The risk to abortion rights in America is “chilling and dangerous for women”, she said.

She added: “Even here, having women who are going to have an abortion subject to intimidation and protest outside a hospital is deeply wrong.”

The First Minister’s statements came after the architect of the UK’S abortion laws intervened on the issue. David Steel said “busybodies have no right to pressurise women” who are seeking to end a pregnancy.