Police in Scotland have made the first arrest of a protester who allegedly breached an exclusion zone around an abortion clinic, days after the US vice-president, JD Vance, spread inaccurate claims about Scotland’s rules.
The arrest of the 74-year-old woman took place as anti-abortion campaigners funded by the Texas-based group 40 Days for Life announced a fresh wave of protests outside the clinic in Glasgow next month, in defiance of the ban.
Scottish politicians said the protesters had been “emboldened” by Vance’s factually inaccurate claim last week that people who lived within an exclusion zone were banned from praying at home.
Gillian Mackay, a Scottish Green party MSP who championed the legislation, said: “It’s no coincidence that this has happened so soon after JD Vance and his supporters have spread toxic misinformation about Scotland. It is vital that we stand up for reproductive rights and against those who are working to undermine them.”
The act, Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) 2024, passed by the Scottish parliament in June last year, prohibits protests against abortion within a 200-metre (650ft) area around a hospital or clinic which provides abortion services.
In an attack on these policies at the Munich Security Conference, Vance said the Scottish and UK governments had “placed the basic liberties of religious Britons [in] the crosshairs”.
He alleged: “This last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, who regularly attends church, said earlier on Wednesday that Vance’s claims were inaccurate. “JD Vance is just wrong and that issue was extensively discussed during the passage of the bill,” he said.
“On the letter issued to households, his claims were wrong about that letter as well, and no such point was put to residents whatsoever on private prayer.”
In a statement, Police Scotland said: “We were made aware of a group of protesters having gathered in the Hardgate Road area of Glasgow around 2.05pm on Wednesday 19 February 2025.
“Officers attended and a 74-year-old woman was arrested and charged in connection with breach of the exclusion zone.” The force added that she would be reported to prosecutors.
The Daily Record newspaper reported that 40 Days for Life activists plan to hold daily demonstrations between 5 March and 13 April outside the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Glasgow on Hardgate Road, where there is an abortion clinic.
Swinney said abortion care was a central part of existing health and social care provision in Scotland.
“I have no plans to change that,” he added. “It’s part and parcel of the offering we make. The buffer zone legislation was designed to essentially recognise that women accessing those services should be able to do so without any additional sense of pressure.”
Mackay said: “We know the awful impact that these protests have had. Some of the testimonies from women who have had to endure them have been heartbreaking.
“I urge 40 Days For Life and anyone else who is planning to protest in a safe access zone to think again, as they will be stopped and there will be consequences.”
