A professional-life activist was confronted by regulation enforcement for holding a silent vigil exterior an abortion clinic in Scotland because the remedy of pro-life activists within the U.Ok. is receiving renewed consideration following a speech by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
In a submit on X Tuesday, British pro-life activist Lois McLatchie Miller shared video footage of an encounter between pro-life activist Rose Docherty and regulation enforcement officers in Scotland, who have been insisting that she was breaking the regulation by holding a silent vigil exterior an abortion clinic and holding an indication studying “Coercion is against the law, right here to speak, solely if you would like.”
Within the video, the regulation enforcement officers listed “silent vigils” as one in all a number of gadgets that violated a Scottish regulation defending so-called “Protected Entry Zones” round abortion clinics. As cited on the Scottish authorities’s web site, as of Sept. 24, 2024, pro-life demonstrations and even silent prayers are banned close to Protected Entry Zones.
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After regulation enforcement defined to Docherty that “standing there saying nothing” quantities to a “silent vigil,” the pro-life activist insisted that she was doing nothing mistaken: “I’m simply declaring that coercion is towards the regulation and that if anybody needs to come back and communicate to me, they will. I’m not doing anything.”
The officers remained unconvinced, stating: “There’s clearly a cause why you’re right here, why you’re on this space. I’m conscious that you’ve been right here protesting towards abortion earlier than, so I don’t perceive why you’re on this space once more protesting the identical factor.”
After one of many officers suggested Docherty to “transfer away from this space,” she requested if she can be “committing an offense” if she stayed. One of many officers answered within the affirmative. She then reiterated her case, saying, “I’m simply right here to talk to anybody in the event that they wish to communicate to me.”
“That’s what I’m doing standing right here, saying that coercion is against the law, and if anybody needs to talk to me, they will,” she harassed. “So, is that an offense?”
Docherty’s confrontation with native Scottish police comes simply days after Vance condemned the prosecution of conservatives for protesting abortion on the Munich Safety Convention in Munich, Germany final week. As Vance’s remarks prompt, Docherty just isn’t the one pro-life activist in the UK who has been focused by regulation enforcement for partaking in silent prayer exterior an abortion clinic.
Vice President JD Vance rebukes Europe’s anti-Christian discrimination in Munich speech
.@JDVance (@VP) blasts arrest of British Military vet Adam Smith-Connor (@ChooseLifeSoton@ADF_UK) for silently praying. https://t.co/NcJ7X44Nvlpic.twitter.com/3Nr94ygNOR
— Melissa Barnhart (@MelBarnhart) February 16, 2025
Vance particularly talked about the case of Adam Smith-Connor, a pro-life activist who was fined the equal of $11,335 for praying silently exterior an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, England. Smith-Connor described himself as “extraordinarily grateful” for Vance’s speech, the place the vp asserted that “no one ought to be criminalized for his or her prayers, their mere ideas.”
Professional-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has additionally repeatedly discovered herself focused by regulation enforcement for partaking in silent prayer exterior an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England. Native police not too long ago requested Vaughan-Spruce to go away the realm regardless of an October 2024 steerage from the Crown Prosecution Service stating that silent prayer exterior an abortion clinic is “not essentially” against the law.
Vaughan-Spruce had beforehand been awarded the equal of $16,858 for “unjust remedy” as compensation for 2 earlier arrests over her silent prayer exterior the abortion clinic.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Put up. He may be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
