NICOLA Sturgeon has pledged to help “progress quickly” Holyrood legislation to set up buffer zones outside abortion clinics in Scotland after a Supreme Court ruling paved the way for similar proposals in Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously found that plans to establish buffer zones for women accessing medical appointments does not impinge on the rights of protesters under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Greens MSP Gillian Mackay will table a Members’ Bill at Holyrood next year to et up buffer zones in Scotland – with the Supreme Court decision removing a potential barrier.
The Supreme Court found the Northern Irish legislation balanced competing rights, with judges concluding that as drafted the Bill was "justifiable".
The judgement states that “women who wish to access lawful abortion services have a reasonable expectation of being able to do so without being confronted by protest activity designed to challenge and diminish their autonomy and undermine their resolve”.
It adds that the legislation “only prevents anti–abortion protestors from exercising their rights…within designated safe access zones”, adding that “they are free to protest anywhere else they please”.
Ms Mackay told The Herald yesterday that her legislation could still be held up by potential court action.
The Greens MSP asked the First Minister if she welcomed the Supreme Court decision.
READ MORE: Scottish buffer zones to be rolled out 'as quickly as possible'
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon “very pleased yesterday to see that Supreme Court has protected the rights of women to access abortion services without fear of harassment or intimidation in Northern Ireland”.
She added: “The Scottish government is currently considering very carefully the detail of that judgement and we look forward to working with Gillian Mackay on how we can progress quickly the next steps for taking forward her Bill.
READ MORE: 'I thought abortion protests only happened in America'
“We are absolutely committed to supporting Gillian Mackay with the development of a Bill to safeguard access for women in Scotland to access healthcare facilities that provide abortion services and to do so without fear, harassment or intimidation.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel