AN anti-abortion protest is to set to be held right outside a clinic in Edinburgh at the weekend, with organisers claiming it will have “no lasting effect” on patients.
Supporters of the Scottish Family Party are preparing to hold a “pro-life light display” and “silent” demonstration outside the Chalmers Centre at 8pm on Saturday.
The fringe party’s chair Richard Lucas has said the demonstration will be held at the entrance to the clinic or “very nearby”, so protesters will at the heart of a buffer zone.
The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) prohibits anti-abortion protests from taking place within 200m of a clinic or hospital offering abortion care.
The law remains in place 24 hours a day, regardless of whether the facility is closed.
It comes after the same organisation held a “light display” commemorating lives lost to abortion in Aberdeen. Protesters were also inside a buffer zone connected to the Aberdeen Community Health and Care Village on this occasion.
A video shared by the group after the event showed a woman confronting the protesters by taking a placard. Shortly after, she is seen on the floor surrounded by two men, one of whom snatched the placard out of her hands. She can then be heard saying "get your f****** hands off me now".
Police Scotland chose to take no action over the protest in Aberdeen, but have since been urged to “be consistent” in their approach by Green MSP Gillian Mackay, who spearheaded the legislation in Parliament.
A 74-year-old woman was arrested and charged in Glasgow last month for breaching the buffer zone law. Since then, protesters in the 40 Days for Life group have been standing outside the buffer zone surrounding the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Mackay said she was not “keen” on the “question mark” put over how well the zones were working in Aberdeen and has urged police to take action where necessary in Edinburgh on Saturday.
She told The National: “I think what we need is a consistent approach from all of Police Scotland and all of the different areas to make sure that the action we’re seeing taken in Glasgow is also the action we’re seeing taken in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
“I think there was always a danger that we were potentially going to see different officers dealing with it differently for the first couple of incidents but I think now, given the good public reaction to how it has been dealt with in Glasgow compared to how things were dealt with in Aberdeen, we should be encouraging Police Scotland to take that consistent approach to make sure people have confidence that if they call the police about what’s happening in a safe access zone that it’s going to be taken seriously.”
She went on: “It’s difficult to anticipate what’s going to happen, but that approach in Glasgow gave people confidence that the zones were working.
“I’m not keen on the question mark that was put over how well they are working in Aberdeen, with the caveat of not being able to see what happened in its entirety.”
The law clearly states that a person in a safe access zone is committing an offence if they act with the intention of or are reckless as to whether the act has the effect of:
- Influencing the decision of another person to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services
- Preventing or impeding another person from accessing, providing or facilitating the provision of abortion services
- Causing harassment, alarm or distress to another person in connection with the other person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services
It goes on to say that if the offending act has a “continuing effect”, it “does not matter” whether any patient is attempting to access services in the zone at the time.
The Scottish Family Party is denying, however, that the behaviour of members will have any “lasting effect”.
Chair Richard Lucas said: “Our event will have no lasting effect.
"[Gillian] Mackay's response is a tad hysterical
“She's right about one thing, though. We are trying to bring our message of care for the most vulnerable to the widest possible audience.”
Asked about the protests being held by the Scottish Family Party and its tactics, Mackay added: “It’s quite childish. It feels like a movement in the last throes of trying to be relevant.
“It’s a bit of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.
“But we can’t underestimate the impact that will have on people attending these clinics so that’s why we have to take it seriously and flag it to the police to make sure they’re doing everything they can to ensure that if and when these activities take place that the public have the confidence that the police are going to deal with them appropriately.”
Mackay has urged people considering counter protesting not to do so, as this would also breach the law.
“Don’t go and play them at their own game because it’s exactly what they want,” she said.
Police Scotland has said it is aware of the event, adding it will be “police appropriately”.
