CV NEWS FEED // Scottish parliament has advanced a stringent new bill on abortion clinic buffer zones through the first phase of ratification that would criminalize silent prayer outside clinics.
According to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, the draft legislation proposed by the Scottish Green Party member MSP Gillian Mackay in October 2023, “has sparked a debate on the criminalization of silent prayer,” among parliamentary members.
Mackay stated in her defense of the bill during a parliamentary debate that “If nobody knows someone is praying, and nothing in their conduct is capable of having the effects on women or staff that this Bill seeks to prevent, then it is unlikely that any offense could be committed.”
She continued:
If someone stands silently praying for a long time, deliberately looking at women accessing an abortion clinic, or for example with a sign, then they may be committing an offense.
The bill, which was passed on the first phase on April 30, has two more stages pass through before it becomes an official piece of legislation.
“If it so happens, this would be the most draconian buffer zone law in the region,” the watchdog group noted: “as the current draft covers an area of 200 meters [656 feet] around abortion clinics (compared to 100m [320 feet] in Northern Ireland and 150m [492 feet] in England and Wales), with the possibility of being further extended if it does not ‘adequately protect women.’”
The bill also extends to displays in residential areas, potentially criminalizing the prolife bumper stickers or window signs.
As CatholicVote previously reported, several prolifers in England have been fined for silently praying outside of abortion clinics in the so-called buffer zones, prompting outrage from several human rights organizations and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
