A Holyrood health committee is currently hearing evidence for and against the implementation of buffer zones in Scotland, with SPUC due to appear later this month.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) will give evidence against the imposition of buffer zones, officially known as “Safe Access Zones”, on 12 March. Representatives from the Catholic Church and other pro-life groups are expected to attend as well.
MSPs began to receive evidence this week in favour of Green MSP Gillian Mackay’s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill. The proposed legislation, if passed, would impose a buffer zone of at least 200 meters around abortion facilities in Scotland – there would also be an option to request an even larger zone.
The Bill would outlaw all pro-life activity, including vigils and even posters inside residential buildings. Rule breakers face fines of £10,000 or more.
However, Dr Emily Ottley of Winchester University, who submitted evidence this week, warned that Scotland must “comply with human rights and/or constitutional obligations”.
In October 2022, a Home Office minister admitted that the Government was “unable” to say whether buffer zones in England and Wales were “presently compatible” with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), implying that such legislation might breach one or more articles, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as freedom of expression and assembly.
Several individuals, most notably Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, have been arrested in England for praying silently outside abortion facilities. Adam Smith-Connor, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, awaits trial for praying for his dead son (lost to abortion) outside a BPAS facility in Bournemouth, as reported by SPUC.
“I did not approach anyone, I did not speak to anyone, I did not breach anyone’s privacy. I simply stood silently. I am being tried for the prayerful thoughts I held in my head”, Smith-Connor later stated.
Buffer zones founded on false narrative
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “Illiberal buffer zones not only violate freedom of speech, but they also prevent desperate mothers in crisis pregnancies from receiving last-minute interventions when they need it most.
“As Andrew Boff of the London Assembly states, pro-lifers at such vigils, contrary to media portrayals, ‘are coming from a position of love, of love for human life… To ban people from showing an alternate way, when the worst possible outcome of their activity might be that a child lives that otherwise would not live, I think is outrageous, quite frankly.’
“The misleadingly titled ‘Safe Access Zones’ Bill is a danger to freedom of speech as well as women’s right to hear what pro-life individuals have to say and offer. Such legislation is proposed under the false argument that women are being harassed, one of several myths perpetuated by abortion apologists seeking to vilify pro-life men and women who attend such vigils.”