Abortion clinic buffer zone summit takes place

A summit on protest buffer zones outside maternity hospitals is due to take place in Edinburgh today.

The meeting will be personally chaired by Nicola Sturgeon, after months of anti-abortion protestors camping outside maternity hospitals and Sandyford centres across the country.

Campaigners are calling for an exclusion zone to be put in place around clinics to protect those trying to access abortion services.

Calls for emergency legislation

The buffer zones would ban certain activities designed to deter or prevent women from accessing abortion care within 150 metres of the entrance to a clinic or hospital.

A members bill is being put forward by the Scottish Greens but could take two years to become law.

Today's summit will look at what can be done in the meantime to enforce buffer zones outside some of the most targeted areas including in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Greg Irwin's a paediatric consultant at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow and said: "Women seek to access or health care for all sorts of reasons. Everyone's circumstances are different is and there's all sorts of different terminations for different reasons. That could be after miscarriage, it could be a pregnancy that is not good to proceed for a foetal anomaly, some unsurvivable condition.

"There are laws laid down to stipulate in which circumstances abortion can take place. So there's nothing illegal going on. Everything that's happening is entirely legal. So these women are doing absolutely nothing wrong. They are all entirely within the rights to be doing what they're doing.

"Disgusting behaviour"

"The protesters, however, do not want them to enjoy the rights which are passed into law in this country. The protesters are there to bully and intimidate these patients, to try and get them not to go through with whatever decision they've made.

"The protesters will tell you that they're there to inform the patients and they're there to help them. They're not there for that at all. The only sole goal is to either talk them out of an abortion, or make them feel absolutely terrible about whatever decision is made. And that's just all harassing and it's intimidation. And it really has no place outside any hospital in Scotland.

"It's disgusting behaviour.

"That the effect that it has on the patients is obvious that some patients will come along and not know that they're there. And so they'll be unexpectedly confronted by protesters holding signs with babies on and some bible paragraphs and judgmental passages. And they'll be completely blindsided by that.

Other people might be expecting them because of the publicity around the campaign. And they'll be dreading having to pass them. There are just a judgmental group of people looking at them, invading their privacy.

"Women have a complete right to privacy as well that they don't deserve to be observed witness, in some cases recorded going about that their own private health care.

"It's a it's an awful position to be putting these women, many of them will already be having the very worst day of their life. What they need is some love and compassion and some professional support, which is what they get inside the hospital.

"What they do not need is judgement, harassment and intimidation. So these women have been bullied outside my hospital by these protesters, and it has to stop."

Healthcare staff operating 'like bouncers'

Calls for action have been mounting over recent months, with campaign group Back Off Scotland setup to directly campaign for buffer zones.

Labour health spokesperson Monica Lennon is attending today and said: "For healthcare workers involved in providing abortion healthcare... they have been expected to operate like bouncers trying to help patients who are running the gauntlet of these protesters, people who are afraid to come in for healthcare.

"I hope that we really hear from people with lived experience because they have the solution. They know what needs to change, and also the healthcare workers because they are on the front line. And they are also being emotionally and mentally - and hopefully not yet physically - abused, there's a real risk that people could be in danger.

"It looks like the police would benefit from some training - particular some trauma informed training - because we are talking about some of the most vulnerable women in Scotland who are being prevented from accessing health care."

Should be police be given new powers?

Also being considered today is what powers Police Scotland could be given to remove protestors for the area around hospitals.

Women's Health Minister Maree Todd said: "Everyone is well aware of the legal complexities that need to be navigated that we just can't wish away so what we're hoping for is that we will find short term solutions medium term solutions and a greater understanding of what the long term solutions might look like."

"In my ministerial working group, we've talked about what police powers might be available to be used when situations arise on the ground and we're keen to hear from Police Scotland about how they see the situation being managed."

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Sturgeon: Anti-Abortion protests should be outside parliament, not hospitals

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