New buffer zones are a turning point for reproductive rights - Lorna Slater

Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay introduced the Safe Access Zones Act. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

If you thought this kind of open harassment of people accessing basic healthcare was unacceptable, you weren't alone. It is awful that these protests have been allowed for so long.

It’s the sort of behaviour that we wouldn’t accept in any other part of life. Can you imagine protestors waiting outside A&E to voice their opinion on your broken bone or head injury? It is simply unheard of.

Finally, we have the powers to stop them. From today, after years of hard work and campaigning, this kind of intimidation is finally against the law.

My Scottish Green MSP colleague, Gillian Mackay, has spearheaded the change, with her Safe Access Zones Act which is coming into effect from today. It means that there will now be 200-metre “buffer zones” outside sites like Chalmers to prevent anti-choice protesters from targeting patients and staff.

In this boundary it will now be an offence for protesters to try to influence another person’s decision to access services, to impede their entrance or to cause them harassment, alarm or distress.

One account that really sticks with me is that of a young woman who visited Chalmers in 2021 – at 17 she attended the clinic for a general appointment and was intimidated by male protestors who assumed she was there for an abortion and then called her a “teenage murderer”. She was terrified. In this case she wasn’t there to access abortion services, but, even if she was, it would be no excuse for that kind of abuse.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of accounts like this from all over the country – from both patients and staff. It is rare for our parliament to come together in the way that it did to support Gillian and her bill – 118 MSPs backed it, out of 129, with the support of all party leaders. It was a strong message in defence of reproductive rights and healthcare.

But it is also very sad and infuriating that this legislation was even necessary. Abortion rights are human rights, and they are healthcare. No one should have to experience that kind of harassment, especially when they are trying to seek medical care.

I am grateful to Gillian for all her work in introducing this act, but also to campaigners across Edinburgh and everyone who contributed to the consultation and shared what I know were very difficult experiences.

I hope that this is a turning point and that nobody else will have to suffer these protests or run a gauntlet of intimidation to get the healthcare they are entitled to.