Calls for buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland after protests [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Calls for buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland after protests

SNP urged to act by Scottish Labour and campaigners as fears grow threat to Roe v Wade in US could embolden anti-choice movement

Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent
Wed 4 May 2022 18.33 BST
Last modified on Wed 4 May 2022 19.20 BST

The Scottish government is facing growing calls to impose buffer zones around abortion clinics amid fears that potential changes to abortion rights in the US are emboldening anti-choice protesters.

A leaked US draft supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade has sharpened anxieties over delays in implementing the SNP’s 2021 manifesto pledge to support local authorities to establish protest-free zones around clinics.

With increasing levels of protests outside hospitals in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scottish Labour called for an emergency summit to discuss the “urgent” introduction of buffer zones. Similar zones exist in a handful of local authorities in England following a landmark case in Ealing, west London.

The first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said that “the right of women to decide what happens to our own bodies is a human right” after reports that Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that guaranteed the right to abortion in the US, could be overturned.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/04/calls-for-buffer-zones-around-abortion-clinics-in-scotland-after-protests

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