London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Glasgow plans abortion clinic buffer zones to protect patients from activists

Glasgow plans abortion clinic buffer zones to protect patients from activists

Nicola Sturgeon says ‘horrific’ US supreme court decision will embolden anti-abortion protesters in Scotland
Abortion clinics in Glasgow are expected to be protected by Scotland’s first buffer zones to prevent patients from being intimidated by anti-abortion activists.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said work was under way to establish whether council officials could use local bylaws to set up buffer zones before Holyrood passes legislation to authorise them at national level.

Speaking to reporters as she hosted a summit in Edinburgh on abortion rights in Scotland, Sturgeon added that the measures would very likely be challenged in court on human rights grounds as they limited the right to protest.

She said the US supreme court’s “catastrophic and horrific” decision last Friday to lift the constitutional right to abortion established 50 years ago in Roe v Wade would embolden anti-abortion activists in Scotland, and strengthened the moral case to protect abortion rights in Scotland.

“The government will do what we can to support any council that seeks to on a test case basis or a pilot basis use bylaws and support them in the inevitable legal challenge they will face to that,” she said.

Clinics in Glasgow that offer sexual and reproductive health advice and services have been the focus of regular and long-running protests by anti-abortion activists, partly funded and supported by US groups, and backed by John Mason, an SNP MSP.

Clinicians at the Sandyford centre in Glasgow, which also supports rape survivors, recently complained that the protests were abusive and intimidating. Some protesters wore body cameras and carried signs accusing practitioners of murder.

The Scottish government and council leaders have been accused by opposition parties and medical professionals of failing to act quickly enough to protect providers. In April, 76 clinicians at Queen Elizabeth university hospital in Glasgow, also the focus of anti-abortion protests, wrote to Maree Todd, a health minister, urging her to “show courage” and take action.

Todd told reporters on Monday that Glasgow was an obvious location for a buffer zone test case. “Glasgow is where much of the problem is,” she said.

Sturgeon then confirmed that the Scottish government was investigating whether to back a private member’s bill by a Scottish Green MSP, Gillian Mackay, to introduce 150-metre-wide buffer zones around abortion clinics.

She said she “believed strongly” that legislation was the correct long-term solution, but supporters of the measure had to recognise that buffer zones could breach the European convention on human rights, which protects free speech. Ministers were waiting for the UK supreme court to rule on a Northern Irish case next month, to see if that clarified the legal situation.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
×