Women are expected to face a “40-day gauntlet of harassment” as anti-abortion protesters stage a campaign in Glasgow.
The 40 Days for Life group have begun a vigil outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on Wednesday – with protesters expected to gather each day until April 2.
Pro-choice campaigners have hit out against the “intimidation” and “harassment” women seeking to access abortions in Glasgow are set to face over the next month.
Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay stated that she hoped “that this is the last year that we see these protests” amid efforts to introduce legislation creating 150 metre safe access zones, or ‘buffer zones’.
Lucy Grieve, the co-founder of Back Off Scotland, warned that the issue of harassment and protests near clinics has been “going on in Scotland since the 1990s” and said that buffer zones were needed “as quickly as possible”.
“It’s really frustrating that there’s not been a suitable conclusion to them before now.
“It's very frustrating for us as campaigners, we have heard from hundreds of patients and staff across Scotland in the past three years since we started our campaign. They are traumatising stories.”
READ MORE: Abortion buffer zones will be one of devolution’s ‘proudest legacies’, says MSP
On Wednesday, a consultant paediatric radiologist urged the anti-abortion protesters to move along from the hospital.
Dr Greg Irwin, who has been a vocal advocate for buffer zones, said: “We have got protesters outside the hospital for the next 40 days, all through Lent, 12 hours a day, causing harassment and intimidation of women seeking abortion healthcare.
"It is an incredibly unkind, unfriendly thing to be doing.
The doctor stated that the group can have a “prayer vigil anywhere they like” but criticised the group for staging the campaign as the “gates of the hospital”.
He added: "The reason they are doing it here is because they know the effect that they are having.
“They are intimidating women, they are upsetting women, some of these women are having the very worst day of their life and these people are here causing further harassment and further upset.”
READ MORE: Campaigners criticise omission of abortion care in SNP women's health plan priorities
The 40-day protest is being staged by a Texas-based anti-choice organisation and similar demonstrations have taken place across Scotland.
Speaking on her Bill, which is supported by the Scottish Government and the British Medical Association, Ms Mackay said: “Abortion rights are human rights. Yet, all over our country, far too many people are having to manoeuvre their way past groups of campaigners.
“My consultation received over 12,000 responses, which shows the depth of feeling.”
The MSP added that the introduction of buffer zones would be “a watershed moment for reproductive rights in Scotland.”
On the protests, she added: “It will be a 40-day gauntlet of harassment. It is utterly unacceptable and has no place in a modern and progressive Scotland.”
There are also concerns that the number of protests outside of hospitals and health clinics were not being recorded by health boards.
A series of freedom of information requests issued by the Herald, revealed only three health boards had recorded instances of “intimidation, harassment, or anti-abortion protesting” nearby NHS premises.
Despite previous 40-day campaigns outside QEUH, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde only recorded such incidents outside its Sandyford clinic between 2017 and 2022.
One report was recorded in 2019 but nine instances of protests were reported in 2022. NHS Lothian confirmed four reports of intimidation outside the Chalmers Sexual Health Service in Edinburgh.
NHS Lanarkshire recorded five instances of harassment outside the Link Community Centre which was used by their staff for carrying out vaccinations in 2021 and 2022, but no instances were recorded at sexual health clinics.
Ms Grieve said: “I don’t know why the government haven’t mandated that monitoring should be a part of the service.
“It’s a problem that lays firmly at the government's door, they need to be collecting evidence beyond Back Off Scotland, a group of students collecting testimonies.”
She explained that health boards have previously claimed to have no issues with anti-abortion protests but that Back Off Scotland had received first-hand reports from people who experienced harassment.
“The action taken by the government legislation needs to be bold and unequivocal,” she added.
“The woman we speak to they're in for a procedure that they're not taking lightly and the last thing they want is to be involving police or making complaints.”
The campaigner raised concerns about the "emboldening" of the anti-abortion protesters, who also covered pro-choice messages which were put up ahead of the 40-day demonstration.
"Their rhetoric has changed very much from wanting to help women to wanting to maintain their freedom of speech, MS Grieve said.
40 Days for Life was contacted for comment.
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