On Monday a judge dropped charges against Scottish grandmother Rose Docherty, who was arrested a second time in September for offering conversation about abortion in a hospital “buffer zone.”
Docherty, 75, was charged for holding a sign within 200 meters of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital that read, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
Footage of Rose's arrest last September: pic.twitter.com/LCPNemW7X3
— ADF International (@ADFIntl) April 28, 2026
In 2024 the Scottish legislature passed a law establishing 200-meter-wide “buffer zones” surrounding all facilities that provide abortions, including hospitals, forbidding harassment, intimidation, and “influencing” of anyone seeking to access abortion services.
The law prohibits behavior considered likely to “influence someone’s private decision to use abortion services, prevent or get in the way of someone using abortion services (or) harass or distress someone trying to use abortion services.”
Following her September arrest, the 75-year-old grandmother was held in custody for several hours. She was refused a chair to sit on in her cell, despite making it known that she had a double hip replacement.
“Simply for being available for the lonely, for the afraid, and for the coerced, I have been treated like a violent criminal,” Docherty said in a statement outside court following her legal victory.
“But thankfully today the charges have been dismissed. The judge ruled that the charges were irrelevant and that they were a breach of my Article 10 free speech rights,” she said.
It is unclear whether the judge dismissed the case on a free speech basis. During an April 20 hearing, the Crown “admitted that the presence of another individual within the zone who was accessing, providing or facilitating the provision of abortion services was an essential ingredient of the offence and, remarkably, conceded that they were still making enquiries as to how many people, if any, were influenced by Rose’s conduct within the zone,” according to ADF International, which was responsible for coordinating Docherty’s legal defense.
ADF International reported that the Procurator Fiscal had “dismissed the case pro loco et tempore, meaning the matter can be brought back should prosecutors bring improved evidence and decide that a prosecution continues to be in the public interest.”
Docherty is the first person to be criminally charged under Scotland’s 2024 “buffer zone” law.
Docherty’s arrest sparked international condemnation, including from the U.S. State Department, which called her arrest “another egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe.”
“When 75-year-old grandmothers are being arrested for standing peacefully and offering conversation, common sense and basic civility are under attack.”
In August, all charges were dropped against Docherty after she was arrested for the first time in February 2025 for standing silently outside Queen Elizabeth University Hospital holding a sign with the same message: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
The arrest came just days after U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance condemned the British government’s 2022 arrest of pro-lifer Adam Smith-Connor for silently praying outside an abortion facility under a similar buffer law, and the Scottish government for “distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called ‘safe access zones’ warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”
Scottish officials “said no letters had been sent out saying people couldn’t pray in their homes,” according to the BBC. However, LifeSite has a screenshot of one such letter that states “activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a Zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the Zone and are done intentionally or recklessly.”
When footage of Docherty’s arrest emerged, the behavior of the police officers was slammed as “shameful” and a “disgrace.”
Asked by BBC Scotland News if she would return to hold a sign outside the hospital, Docherty said, “Life moves on for people and I’ll make decisions as and when I feel like I want to do something, but I don’t feel that I’m constrained by being afraid.”