Scottish Catholic bishops have criticised legislation establishing so-called “buffer zones” around abortion facilities, warning it represents a serious erosion of civil and religious freedoms.
In a recent statement, the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland said the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act 2024 “restricts free speech, free expression, and freedom of religion in ways that should concern us all.” The law creates exclusion zones of up to 200 metres around abortion facilities, where conduct deemed to “influence” abortion decisions may be criminalised.
“We oppose this law because it is disproportionate and undemocratic,” the bishops said, adding that while the Church “does not condone harassment or intimidation,” such behaviour “was not the intention of this law.”
They described it as “unsettling” that the first charge under the legislation came during Christmas, citing the case of Rose Docherty, a 74-year-old woman charged after standing silently near a Glasgow hospital holding a sign offering conversation.
The bishops warned the law could criminalise silent prayer and even extend to private homes within designated zones. “A pro-life poster displayed in a window, a conversation overheard, a prayer said by a window – all could, in principle, fall within the scope of criminal sanction,” they said. Similar buffer zone provisions are also in force in Northern Ireland.
“A law supposedly designed to protect choice risks doing the opposite – eliminating one side of a conversation altogether,” the bishops concluded. “It cannot be a crime to give our voice and our prayers to the unborn.”
