Image (by NQ): Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Glasgow vigil
“Furious women” confronted another anti-abortion protest over the weekend. This protest was held by a handful of members of the Scottish Family Party at Mercat Cross in Aberdeen on Saturday night, and a video shared by the group [not seen by us] shows someone approaching their “display”, taking a placard, being approached by a man and ending up on the ground, then surrounded by two men, one of whom snatches the placard out of her hands. She can then be heard saying “Get your f****** hands off me now”.
The Scottish Family Party has admitted the protest was held within the buffer zone around the Aberdeen Community Health and Care Village, which extends over much of Mercat Cross.
Sharing the video, the Scottish Family Party posted: “Any expression of pro-life sentiment seems to elicit a furious response. This is the ethos being created by our media, political and educational elites. We just speak the truth!” (sic)
The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Act came into force last September. It prohibits anyone from protesting against abortion within 200 metres of a healthcare facility offering abortion care.
Humanist Society Scotland CEO Fraser Sutherland raised concerns about the protest potentially breaching the buffer zone laws. He said: “Buffer zones are in force 24 hours a day, and if protests can be seen or heard within a buffer zone, police have the power to move them on. Groups such as the Scottish Family Party are currently desperate to give the impression that their voices are being silenced. In fact, they are free to protest against abortion anywhere [else] in the country… Buffer zones are a proportionate and humane measure that protect freedom of speech while ensuring the right to access healthcare free from intimidation, shaming, and harassment.”
Scottish Greens spokesperson for health, Gillian Mackay MSP, said: “The Scottish Family Party are a band of anti-choice activists who pretend to be political. They would, if given the chance, roll back decades of hard-won women’s rights. This is a disgraceful new low and shows exactly the reason why buffer zones are so necessary. I am concerned that the misinformation spread by [USA Vice-President] JD Vance has empowered some of the most reactionary and misogynistic forces in our country…”
Last week, a woman confronted protesters from the US group 40 Days for Life who gathered near to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, just outside the buffer zone (photo above). They plan to be there for another month.
El Johnstone, who lives nearby, saw the group from her bedroom window before she crossed the road and told them: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Johnstone added that the buffer zone should be expanded so protesters cannot be in the vicinity of the hospital.
Richard Lucas, of the Scottish Family Party, said: “We were inside a buffer zone. The clinic was closed, I understand.” He seemed to suggest that they were not breaching the law because the clinic was closed at the time… However, buffer zones are buffer zones 24 hours a day every day. Richard Lucas said: “There is real hatred of the pro-life movement being stirred up by politicians, the media.”
Buffer zones around all abortion services in Scotland came into effect last year. These comprise 200m areas around the entrances to abortion clinics. Within these areas, it is illegal to hold protests or vigils. Last month, the US Vice President JD Vance strangely claimed that buffer zones amounted to the criminalisation of prayer at home!
The Scottish Family Party is described as a “hard right party” by Fraser Sutherland, the head of Humanism Scotland. Sutherland’s coverage of the protest is quoted in The National as follows:
“We are pleased to see that the buffer zones have worked as intended today. Those accessing clinical care, not only for abortion services but other healthcare too, have not had to face harassment or shaming. Today shows the scaremongering put out by opponents during the passage of the bill, about how this law would ban freedom of expression, was unfounded and without evidence. This law was supported by a huge majority of Members of the Scottish Parliament, and the Supreme Court found that a similar law in Northern Ireland did not interfere with the right to freedom of expression. The nonsense recently spouted by the US Vice President, suggesting that prayer at home is now illegal in Scotland, has whipped up a new wave of opposition just in time for Lent. In a sense it’s appropriate that a US politician is responsible, as 40 Days for Life is a North-American Christian nationalist campaign. It is part of a wider attempt by the US Christian right to export a grim and intolerant fundamentalism to Scotland and Europe. Secularists and humanists won’t let it happen.”
SOURCES: The National, by Steph Braun, 11 March 2025 ; Humanist Society Scotland. 5 March 2025 and Humanist Society Scotland, 11 March 2025. PHOTO by Image NQ, Humanism Scotland