A 74-year-old woman has been charged after silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Scotland less than a week after U.S. Vice President JD Vance highlighted the draconian thought crime laws in the UK.
The pro-life activist has reportedly become the first person to be arrested and charged under Scotland’s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act, the BBC reported.
The law, which came into force last year, prohibits any protests or vigils being held within 200m (656ft) of abortion clinics in Scotland, mirroring similar restrictions enacted in England and Wales.
In footage widely distributed on social media, the 74-year-old woman was heard asking police: “Am I committing an offence?” to which an officer was heard responding: “Yes, I believe you are conducting a silent vigil”.
The woman was also seen carrying a sign that read, “Coercion is a crime. I’m here to talk, only if you want.”
The so-called “buffer zone” legislation makes it a criminal offence to attempt to influence women not to get an abortion outside of clinics, with fines of up to £10,000 or potentially limitless fines in supposedly severe cases. It is also an offence to “impede their access; or otherwise cause alarm, harassment or distress.”
The broad language of the law appears to allow police to arrest those for silently praying outside of clinics, which free speech proponents and religious observers have decried as being akin to a “thought crime”.
In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week, U.S. Vice President JD Vance took aim at the buffer zone laws in the UK, citing them as demonstrations that freedom of speech “is in retreat” in Europe.
Vance went on to highlight letters sent out by the leftist Scottish government to people who live within the abortion clinic buffer zones, which he claimed suggested that “even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”
The author of the legislation, Green party Member of Scottish Parliament Gillian Mackay, accused Vance of spreading “shameless misinformation” and “dangerous scaremongering”. Meanwhile, the government has denied that it sent letters warning against praying in homes near abortion clinics.
However, the government did send letters to residents saying: “In general, the offences apply in public places within the Safe Access Zones. However, activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a Zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the Zone and done intentionally or recklessly.”
The letter went on to call for residents to report anyone they believed to be in violation of the law to Police Scotland.
Some have provided covering fire for the Scottish government, explaining away the letters as merely warning against staging protests on private property near clinics rather than silent prayer within a house. Yet, with the law only being a few months old, it remains to be seen how police will treat reported instances on private property and how the courts will choose to interpret.
The Scottish government has previously enacted speech codes within private dwellings under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which criminalised “stirring up of hatred” against various minority groups even from the privacy of one’s home.