THE bill to introduce buffer zones outside of abortion clinics in Scotland has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament.
Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay’s Members’ Bill will be published on Friday, and will set out the details of how the no-protest zones will work in practice after months of consultation.
Mackay hailed the “milestone” for the legislation as bringing buffer zones one step closer to reality.
The bill will now be assigned to a committee to be scrutinised before making its way through the parliamentary process.
It comes as anti-abortion campaigners 40 Days for Life have begun another round of protests outside of clinics across Scotland this month.
The Abortion Services Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill has already gathered cross party support from MSPs, with all party leaders, with the exception of Douglas Ross, supporting the final proposal at the end of the last Holyrood term.
There were over 12,000 responses to the consultation process held between May and August last year.
“This is a milestone moment for my bill and for protecting reproductive rights in Scotland,” Mackay said.
“We are a big step closer to delivering buffer zones and stopping the appalling harassment and abuse that we have seen from anti-choice protesters.
“Politics can often seem polarised and fractured, but this process has only been possible because of the cross party consensus that has been built.”
The full details of how the buffer zones will work have not yet been released, but it is expected that there will be 150-metre no protest zones outside of clinics and hospitals that provide abortion services in Scotland.
Not all health boards provide abortion services, so the legislation would only implement these no-go areas around clinics and hospitals that provide terminations.
Breaching this perimeter to intimidate women accessing these services or staff working at the facilities by anti-abortion protestors will become a criminal offence.
“I will be able to share more details once the bill has been published in full, but I want to thank everyone who has got us to this point,” Mackay (below) added.
“The next steps in its delivery will now be outlined by the Scottish Parliament in due course.
“Particularly, I want to thank those who have trusted me with their very personal, painful and traumatic experiences. It is those testimonies that have shaped this bill.
“Nobody should ever have to face such intimidation when accessing healthcare, and this bill will end it for good.”
Anti-abortion protests in Scotland have become a growing issue in recent years after 40 Days for Life began picketing outside of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow in 2016.
It was the first of its kind outside of a Scottish clinic but now the sight of anti-abortion campaigners holding prayer “vigils” has become commonplace.
We previously told how the evangelical group works as a franchise to recruit members in an attempt to stop women from using lifeline health services.
