AN anti-abortion protest which is set to last for 40 days has begun near a Glasgow hospital.
A handful of activists from the 40 Days For Life group have gathered at the junction of Shieldhall Road and Hardgate Road close to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Following the introduction of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act last year, anti-choice protesters are now banned from standing within 200m of a clinic where abortion care is offered.
The activists that have gathered near the hospital have been standing just outside the buffer zone that is now in place and have pledged that they will not breach rules now in place.
The group of six – which at points reduced to five – have been seen holding signs saying phrases such as “Choose Life” and “Pregnant? Worried? We are here to help you. Support is available”.
Those taking part could also be heard saying the Lord's Prayer and other religious messages while holding beads.
On Wednesday morning, a woman who lives nearby strode over to accost members of the group as they held a "prayer vigil".
El Johnstone crossed the road from her home nearby to shout at the group and told them: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Referring to the hospital, she said: “You have no idea what the women there have gone through or are going through, you do not know. You have no respect for the women, you don’t care about the women.”
Speaking to media afterwards, Johnstone, who has experience of miscarriage, said: “I woke up this morning and went to have my breakfast and could see this from my bedroom window. I’m not receiving the healthcare and this has upset me so much.
“So imagine if you were going through a horrible, horrible decision in your life, and you’re faced with this.
"You can pray in your church. You can pray in your houses. You do not need to come and pray outside a healthcare facility and upset everybody who’s going there."
There were also shouts of "disgusting" from people driving past on the busy main road.
Johnstone said the buffer zone should be expanded so campaigners cannot be in the vicinity of the hospital.
Speaking to the Sunday National last week, Green MSP Gillian Mackay, who spearheaded the legislation as it made its way through Holyrood, said that if necessary the buffer zone at the QEUH could be extended in future.
She said: "There was a reason we kept a provision in the bill that if there were particular issues at particular sites, we could extend the zone, and if people are witnessing these protesters and they are outside the zone, we need people to get in touch.
“If they are still in a place where they can be seen, where people are having all the same issues, people need to get in touch with me, or the Government, and make sure that we know of those issues. I am confident that we have the tools at hand to be able to do something about it should we need to but that relies on people and staff being vigilant."
The protests were organised after US vice president JD Vance falsely claimed that people who live within buffer zones had been sent letters by the Scottish Government warning them about praying within their own homes.
A fortnight ago, a 74-year-old woman became the first person in Scotland to be arrested over an alleged breach of the new legislation.
Mackay said the law will face a “real test” as the protests go on.
She said after today's demonstration: “Safe access zones were introduced to protect patients and staff at our hospitals and to keep the protesters at bay, and that is what they have done.
“The fact that only a small number of protesters turned up and they have been consigned to roads that are further from the hospital is an important step forward.
“Nobody should have to pass graphic banners and placards to access healthcare, and I hope that these protests will become a thing of the past.
“I urge the protesters to read the testimony of the many women who have felt intimidated and judged by their actions and to ask themselves if they really want to be responsible for such hurt."
Activists are expected to stand in the same spot from 8am until 8pm for the next 40 days, which coincides with the period of Lent.
Fraser Sutherland, CEO of Humanist Society Scotland, said: "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 MSPs, 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."
The international organisation 40 Days for Life was founded in 2004 in reaction to a Planned Parenthood facility that had opened in Bryan, Texas, in 1998. In the US, Planned Parenthood provides birth control, abortion services, and other primary care for women.
The QEUH has attracted anti-choice protests since 2016 and in 2018 became home to the largest protest of its type ever held in the UK when more than 200 protesters joined together.
