A sexual health clinic which offers women abortion services in Glasgow has been slammed by the leader of the anti-abortion Scottish Family Party (SFP), Richard Lucas.
He has accused the Sandyford Clinic of being "killers" who peddle “vulgar and corrupting” information and has condemned the care they provide.
His statement comes as SFP members recently revealed plans to “brick up” the clinic where women attending for treatment have been harassed and even filmed when accessing abortion services, the Daily Record reports.
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Lucas said he wouldn’t “divulge exactly what we have in mind”, but insisted the group “will cause no inconvenience or damage”. Scottish Greens health spokesperson Gillian Mackay MSP blasted Lucas’ comments and said the SFP had found a “new low”.
We reported on Thursday how Lucas spoke to SFP member Niall Fraser on a live Facebook video about the disturbing details of their plan. Fraser said: “On March 11 at 11am we are going to be protesting this horrific building. The plan is to brick it up. How do we stop kids entering the building? We have to block the entrance. We are going to impede people getting in to the building.”
The Record contacted the SFP to give them an opportunity to respond. When Lucas finally replied on Thursday, he claimed the demonstration would take place “at a time when the clinic is closed” so “talk of harassment and intimidation is silly”.
Lucas, a former UKIP member, added: “I won’t divulge exactly what we have in mind, but suffice it to say that we will symbolically brick up the entrance. We will cause no inconvenience or damage. “We have already discussed our plan with the police.
“The Sandyford Clinic harms young people by leading them into 'treatments' driven by transgender ideology rather than evidence. The vulgar and corrupting RSHP.scot sex education resources are also administered from the Sandyford building.
“It is also a centre for the killing of unborn children. So, Scotland would be a better place without any of these three 'services', and we are communicating and symbolising our view by bricking it up.”
In response to Lucas’ comments, Gillian Mackay said: “Reproductive rights and trans rights are human rights. The Sandyford clinic provides vital services and those who access them, whether patients or staff should be able to do so without obstruction or harassment. The Family Party is an extreme group that has found a new low in this latest attack on NHS premises.”
During the Facebook video, Lucas responded to Fraser’s comment about blocking the Sandyford entrance by saying: “There are some valid forms of healthcare at Sandyford, but an awful lot of it is not - and we are going to make our feelings known.”
Fraser continued: “We need people of the resistance - a symbol that we are not going to take it anymore. I’m willing to do time for it.”
The SFP founded in 2017, states in its core policies it opposes both abortion and “transgender ideology”. Its Facebook broadcast came amidst calls for legislation to introduce ‘buffer zones’ laws at abortion facilities to protect pregnant people from intimidation.
If granted, the legislation would make it illegal for pro-life activists to stage demonstrations within a 100m vicinity of any abortion clinic. The bid was brought forward by Gillian Mackay.
She added: “When it comes to human rights we can’t stand still. My Buffer Zone Bill end the protests we have seen from the anti-choice campaigners who have targeted Sandyford and other abortion service providers.”
The Record has reported on a worrying rise of extremist anti-abortion activity outside Scotland’s sexual health clinics. In June last year we told how religious activists were seen ‘filming patients’ outside Sandyford before being chased away by counter demonstrators.
Last week we reported on Texas based religious group 40 Days for Life staging a “prayer vigil” outside the maternity ward at the Queen Elizabeth University hospital in Glasgow for the second year running. The group held up banners which read: ‘Don’t be coerced into abortion’ with images of foetuses.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said previously: “We are aware of a planned protest on Saturday, March 11 on Sandyford Place, Glasgow. It will be policed appropriately.”
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