Scottish police arrested a 74-year-old grandmother on Thursday because she offered a conversation to women who were thinking about abortions because she was in the so-called tampon zone, which criminalizes pro-Life speech.
Just a few days after Vice President JD Vance warned European leaders of growing censors at a safety conference in Munich, Rose Docherty was arrested in Glasgow in Scotland near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital for holding the sign saying: “He is a coercion of the crime, here to talk if you want.”
Docherty was the first person arrested and accused Abortion law (safe approach zones)who came into force in September 2024, reported the BBC.
Law prohibits that protest or vigil are taking place within 200 m or 656ft 30 clinics offering abortion services in Scotland but The law determines that the safe approach zone could be expanded if it is considered appropriate.
Rose Docherty holds his sign. (Rose Docherty)
“Everyone is entitled to a consensual conversation,” Docherty said. “I simply put myself available to talk, if anyone wants to approach me and talk about any issue. I did not break the protective zone rules – I did not harass, intimidate, or even try to influence anyone. I simply stood there, at my disposal to speak with love and compassion.”
“It’s not okay to refuse anyone the right to take my offer to talk,” she added. “And it’s not okay to censor zones in our country from thought, beliefs and conversations that authorities just can’t take away. The buffer zone are not” choice “-they are deprived of women from the choice to talk outside the clinic. This is not okay.”
When he arrived for a comment, the Scotch police directed Fox News Digital toward his public edition As for the arrest.
“On Wednesday, February 19, 2025, we became aware of a group of protesters who gathered in the Hardgate Road area in Glasgow at about 2.05pm,” the statement said. “Officers also attended a 74-year-old was arrested and charged with a violation of the exclusion zone. She will be reported to a fiscal procurator.”
England and Wales have a similar version of the law This criminalizes the act of “influence on” someone’s decision on a “approach” abortion services within 150 meters, or almost 500 feet, any abortion. The United Kingdom has expanded its so -called “tampon zone” law to apply to the area around every abortion throughout the country starting on October 31.
This move is an attempt to stop the harassment of patients seeking abortions, but critics and activists for the past claim that the laws are an insult to freedom of speech.
“It is devastating to see the innocent, a 74-year-old wife of Lisica and arrested only for consensual conversation,” for Fox News Digital is Lois McLetchie Miller, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Union defending Freedom International. “JD Vance was right to cause concern – free speech was eroded in Scottish in a worrying extent.”
“In Scotland and throughout the UK, the authorities were overly realistic in using the law of the” Puferous zone zone “to prosecute people only because of their thoughts or for quiet standing,” she added. “The government should clarify that at once quiet prayerAnd an agreement, they are not crimes. “
Last week, Vance spoke The Scottish Government sent letters about the Safe approach law, in which he said that people living in the safe approaches of the Safe approach, warning them to prayer in their homes. The Scottish Government said that no letters were sent to people that they could not pray in their homes and instead explained that the law was covered only by “intentional or reckless behavior,” the BBC reported.
But McLetchie Miller said that the prohibitions of the Scottish Tampon Zone Act even expand within the homes of people, if they live within 200 meters from abortion. Letter The sent to the residents explains that the law generally relates to public places in the area, but it can also be applied to “activities in a private place (like home) within the area between the protected premises and the border of the zone, may be a misdemeanor if they can be seen or heard inside the zone and work intentionally or reckless.”
Letter sent to the inhabitants of Glasgow divided by Fox News Digital (Local resident)
“That means, if someone” recklessly “influenced someone’s decision to abortion from their home, he could commit a crime,” she added. “The Scottish authorities sent letters to the locals to warn them about it.”
“Can it be considered” reckless “to pray with an open window? What about a conversation about abortion in your garden while people pass?” she asked. “If one claims to be” under the influence of “such behavior, this innocent expression of speech or faith could be unjustly neglected according to the law.”
Authorities can impose financial fines up to £ 10,000 ($ 12,600) “or to be adopted an unlimited fines, depending on the court proceedings” for anyone who has been found to have violated a safe access zone, according to Scotland government. Citizens can also report a group or individual who believes that they violate the law by contacting police Scotland, which is responsible for implementing a safe approach zone.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Green for Health, said Gillian MacKay MSP, who led the law, said Fox News Digital that no one should feel intimidated when approaching health care. She also said she was proud that the law ended “protests, graphic banners, and nervously, looking at how people were forced to go into hospitals.”
“There are harmful misinformations that have been breaking from American political spheres and showing how few critics know about this act, or it is part of their program that manages fear to introduce it,” she said. “No one is prosecuted for their thoughts or praying in their home as claimed by Vice President. For older politicians to pretend to be obviously funny and dangerous.”
“Abortion rights are human rights,” she added to Fox News Digital. “Every individual in Scotland is entitled to privacy in terms of their health care, and my act ensures that they are protected and their privacy is maintained when approaching these services.”
MacKay also claimed that the US government was a “clear threat” to reproductive rights.
“Today and every day I will stand with millions of people across the US who are opposed to the mizoginist and agendas against the election of Donald Trump and JD Vance,” she added.
Priest charged after prayer outside the abortion clinic happens to criminalize thoughts
Significantly, Docherty offered a conversation in her personal capacity on the day she was arrested, but she serves as a leader in the Scottish Chapter of the Pro-Life for a 40-day life organization. (East)
Significantly, Docherty offered a conversation in her personal capacity on the day she was arrested, but she serves as a leader in the Scottish Chapter of the Pro-Life for a 40-day life organization. Shawn Carney, president of the organization, told Fox News Digital that unlike the Buffer Zone in the United States, where there is a small area around the abortion clinic beyond the demonstrants’ borders, in the UK, you cannot have an opinion for pervasive and stand in a limited area.
“We are in 64 countries around the world, and we have more free speech in Berlin, Moscow and China than in Glasgow or London,” he said. “It’s a fact from our experience.”
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“It’s your country, you can ban what you want,” he added. “You can only say,” You are not allowed in the public square, “but you cannot say it and say that you support freedom of speech. So, do not say that you are for freedom of speech, you are not because you do not allow it. And so my problem is with them, they are running around as if they are heroes, patting your back and shame to the West.”
