AN ANTI-ABORTION group active in Scotland has received over £1 million in US funding, representing a nearly 300% increase in two years.
ADF International — one of several groups which has actively been looking to challenge Scotland’s new abortion buffer zones legislation — received £1,119,975 in 2024 from its US parent entity Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), according to Companies House.
This represents a 281% increase in just two years, as it received £398,000 in 2022.
Founded in 1993, ADF is one of the major forces that helped push for the US Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion in the US.
The organisation has major links to senior American politicians including Republican senator Josh Hawley, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
It has also been designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
Its UK offshoot, ADF International, supports anti-abortion protests across the UK, including an employee sharing and helping to amplify a viral video of Rose Docherty in February — a member of a separate anti-abortion group — who became the first person to be arrested under Scotland’s new abortion buffer zone law.
ADF International has also increased its lobbying efforts at Westminster in recent years, with recent accounts claiming it has engaged with “significant decision-makers” — including providing “briefing material and legal analysis” to several MPs ahead of a vote on abortion buffer zone legislation in England and Wales.
Since that buffer zone legislation was passed, ADF International has provided legal support to protesters in Birmingham and Bournemouth who have been arrested for breaching it.
This includes Adam Smith-Connor, whose case was name-checked by US vice president JD Vance during a much condemned speech in which he took aim at the Scottish Government.
More recently, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labour (DRL), a bureau within the US Department of State, issued a statement saying they were “monitoring” the case of anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt, who is also being supported by ADF International as she is accused of breaching a buffer zone in Bournemouth.
ADF International are also supporting Docherty in her legal case.
With this new funding boost, the most recent accounts state that ADF International is looking to “host a number of major events” in the UK – including looking to “train students and graduates of law and public policy” to advocate for the organisation’s missions.
Another planned event will apparently focus on “bringing together key policy makers and influencers on the issue of freedom of expression”.
“There are some very rich and well financed campaign groups trying to undermine reproductive rights here in Scotland and around the world,” Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay (above), who spearheaded the buffer zones legislation, said.
"These groups have been empowered by the misinformation about buffer zones that has been spread by Vice President Vance and the White House.”
She added: "These groups set out to prevent people exercising their right to access healthcare. It is completely wrong.
"With mounting attacks on the right to choose, it is vital that we stand together in saying that abortion rights are healthcare and must be protected."
ADF International have been approached for comment.
