From the Daily Record

Catholic churches in Scotland have come under fire for recruiting people to join anti-abortion protests run by a group known to “intimidate” women.

Texas-based religious group 40 Days for Life have been slammed by pro-choice campaigners, MSPs and medical staff for holding so-called “prayer vigils” outside of healthcare facilities in Scotland, which will once again begin on February 14.

Their presence has been criticised for causing distress to women going through some of the most difficult experiences of their lives.

The Diocese of Paisley posted on their website: “This Lent, you are invited to consider joining the 40 Days for Life Peaceful Prayer and Fasting Vigil outside of the grounds of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

“The Vigil takes place from 8am until 8pm each day from Ash Wednesday (14th February) until Palm Sunday (24th March).”

St Margaret Mary’s RC Church also posted a similar message on their Facebook page.

Back Off Scotland, a campaign group fighting for the right to harassment-free access to abortion services, said: “In years gone by, groups who harass and intimidate women outside medical facilities did everything they could to distance themselves from well-funded and well-networked institutions like the church.

“This most recent discovery confirms to us that these groups are primarily motivated by ideological views on abortion, and are not the innocent, concerned citizens that they paint themselves out to be.”

Labour MSP Monica Lennon and Green Party MSP Gillian MacKay.

Labour MSP Monica Lennon also condemned the online appeals, stating that church leaders should not be encouraging protestors to gather outside of hospitals.

She told the Record: “This is predatory behaviour intent on scaring women away from abortion clinics, far from being prayerful or peaceful, and it needs to stop.

“Church leaders should not be encouraging crowds to gather at hospitals. It’s only a matter of time before a woman comes to serious harm.

“The architects of these anti-choice protests won’t rest until abortion is banned. Safe access zones are urgently needed to protect women’s safety and privacy. They are also a necessary protection for healthcare workers.

“People are free to pray, but not to prey on others, especially women accessing abortion healthcare.”

Gillian Mackay MSP, who drafted the proposal for buffer zone legislation, added: “These protests are utterly wrong and show exactly why my bill for buffer zones is so crucial.

“Nobody should have to pass crowds targeting them with placards and graphic images in order to access a hospital or a medical centre. It is organised intimidation and it has no place in a modern Scotland.

“Lots of people have shared really terrible and heart-breaking stories with me since I began the process. I urge anyone recruiting protesters, or anyone planning to take part, to show some empathy and think about what they are doing and the awful impact they are having.

“Abortion rights are human rights, and we all have a right to access healthcare.

“Far too many people have been harassed for far too long by these protests. Now an end is in sight, and we are finally on the verge of stopping them for good.”

Holy Cross Parish and St Margaret Mary’s RC Church are parishes under the Archdiocese of Glasgow which is a Catholic church.

The Diocese of Paisley is a Roman Catholic church and the Bishop John Keenan, is a prolific anti-abortion activist. He is also involved with the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).

Healthcare facilities offering abortion services in Scotland have been repeatedly targeted in recent years including; the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Sandyford Clinic, Edinburgh Chalmers Street Clinic and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.

It is believed there are several more churches in Scotland recruiting for 40 Days for Life, as well as in England.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Glasgow said: “The Catholic Church’s pro-life position is well-known. The organisers of this campaign have made it clear that these prayer vigils are peaceful, never violent or intimidatory, and that their concern is for both the mother and the unborn child.

“Catholics may hold a variety of views about the effectiveness of such vigils, however it is important that peaceful protest should be allowed in a democracy.”

The Diocese of Paisley were also contacted for comment but did not respond.

Stage 1 of the Abortion Services Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill begins this month. If the legislation proposed by Greens MSP Gillian Mackay is approved, it will create 200 metre buffer zones around healthcare facilities offering abortion services.

Consideration at stage 1 should be complete by May 3, 2024 and evidence in committee will begin on February 27.

Scotland is the only nation in the UK to have not passed legislation on safe access zones. In Northern Ireland, the bill has already come into force – making it illegal for pro-life protestors to demonstrate within a 100m vicinity of abortion clinics.

And in May, 2023, safe access zones were signed into law in England and Wales.

Buffer Zones are harmless and peaceful, says Catholic Media Office Director 

By Peter Kearney 

Earlier this week the Daily Record covered the debate set to take place among MSP’s on whether to have “Buffer Zones” around abortion clinics.

A Bill proposed by Green MSP Gillian MacKay would criminalise any action aimed at persuading someone not to access abortion or to consider an alternative, within 200 metres of premises carrying out abortions.

It would become illegal, to act in a way designed to influence decisions, hand out leaflets, hold up banners or placards or pray audibly.

Incredibly, praying silently would also be criminalised. 

The Bill takes a sledgehammer to free speech and demolishes many other civil liberties, including freedom of expression, assembly, thought, conscience and religion. It could create for the first time in Scottish legal history, a thought crime. You would just need to think negatively about the actions of others to fall foul of the law.

With so much at stake, it’s probably worth asking: what exactly is the problem this terrible Bill is trying to solve?

Well, you might be surprised to learn that no one has ever been arrested outside an abortion facility in Scotland, for breach of the peace, harassment or intimidation.

Police Scotland have stated explicitly that “existing powers and offences are sufficient to address any unlawful behaviour which may arise in the vicinity of a health care premises as a result of such protest.”

Adding; “Our engagement with participants……has not resulted in any criminality being identified.”

As the Record’s powerful pictures showed this week (see article above), a group of pensioners saying prayers on the pavement isn’t exactly threatening. Since the cops are clear; no crimes are being committed and no new laws are needed, the Bill looks a lot like a sledgehammer being wielded against an invisible nut.

Peaceful protest used to be a cornerstone of our democracy. Silent vigils have always been seen as harmless and unthreatening. If we crush that concept now, where will it end?

Silent Peace vigils outside the Trident nuclear base at Faslane have been a fixture for decades, they explicitly attempt to influence those who witness them, but no Scots politician has ever said we should ban them.

That’s because for generations we’ve respected freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of thought conscience and religion as the hard-won human rights they are and wouldn’t dream of erasing them.

The proposed “Buffer Zone” law would at a stroke undo almost a century of settled international human rights law, leaving our courts to determine whether an individual’s thoughts were permissible or not.  Such a threat to universal and fundamental rights is genuinely frightening.

A growing number of people in Scotland are waking up to this real threat to our freedoms and are calling on the Scottish Government to disassociate itself from this damaging and unnecessary proposal.

Our MSP’s should steer well clear of unravelling our Human Rights by allowing the Police to protect the peace, the prayerful to pray and the concept of freedom of expression to survive.

Peter Kearney is Director of the Catholic Media Office in Scotland.