Increasing Calls for Clinic "Buffer Zones"

The Scotsman newspaper at the weekend met up with several women who have run the gauntlet of anti-abortion protesters at reproductive health clinics.  In one of the cases, a woman had a termination because of a serious medical condition, whilst in another the protesters seem to have been monitoring a woman using a clinic, and had then started harassing her partner.  Several key reproductive health experts, including Doctor Audrey Brown and Doctor Pam Lowe, as well as the campaign group Back Off, have been lobbying the Scottish government to implement “buffer zones” around abortion clinics, which would allow women and their supporters or partners peace in using their services, whilst also allowing the right to protest, within reason.  The Scottish Government said that there were “complex” issues around the subject.  A draft member’s bill on buffer zones brought forward to the Scottish Parliament by Green MSP Gillian Mackay is expected to be published by mid-May this year.