Video footage taken outside an abortion facility in Scotland shows police confronting a woman standing silently on the street as they enforce the country’s new abortion “buffer zone” law.
Just days after U.S. Vice President JD Vance called out the Scottish government over the censorious “Safe Access” law – which he decried as implementing “thoughtcrime” by outlawing “private prayer” – Rose Docherty was targeted by police while standing silently outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, and holding a sign which read: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
🚨BREAKING🚨: Scottish police filmed applying “buffer zone” law to “silent vigil”, despite recent denials from the Scottish government! 👮♂️
— Lois McLatchie Miller (@LoisMcLatch) February 18, 2025
“Am I committing an offence?”
“Yes, I believe you are conducting a silent vigil”
Vance was right. The law IS being misapplied to prayer!🏴 pic.twitter.com/Gsm0x4yspM
Following Vance’s comments criticizing the law, Scottish National Party representative Neil Gray said the American leader’s statement was “ludicrous,” while a government spokesman said that the people of Scotland “continue to have the right to protest and to free speech.”
However, video footage taken on Tuesday morning shows two police officers reading details of the “Safe Access Zones Act” to Docherty: “Examples of what would be classed as breaching the act would be approaching someone trying to persuade them not to access abortion services, surrounding people as they go in and out of the clinic, handing out leaflets, religious preaching, silent vigils.”
“So standing here saying nothing is a silent vigil,” the officer stated.
In response, Docherty noted that she was “just pointing out that coercion is against the law and that if anyone wants to come and speak to me they can. I’m not doing anything else.”
“I’m here to say that if anyone wants to come to speak to me of their own volition they can,” she added.
The policeman suggested that “there’s obviously a reason why you’re here; why you’re in this area” and that Docherty had historically participated in protests against abortion, before advising her “to move away from this area.”
Asking the officer if she was committing an offense by her silent presence, one of the officer’s responded: “Yes, I believe you are conducting a silent vigil, so I believe you would be [committing an offense].”
The “Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Act 2024” came into effect on September 24 last year and establishes 200 m (656 ft.) “buffer zones” around abortion centers in Scotland wherein any act considered an impediment to “safe access” to the facility is now criminal.
According to the act, behaviour 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” is prohibited under law.
“Holding silent vigils” and “handing out leaflets” have been blacklisted as contravening the “buffer zone” law, including on private property. Praying silently inside one’s own home, therefore, could fall foul of the censorious law.
Penalties for breaking the ruling include fines of “up to £10,000 ($12,600) under summary procedure or to an unlimited amount under solemn procedure,” according to the Scottish government.