A 74-year-old Scottish woman was arrested for standing near a hospital that performs abortions with a sign that read: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” The woman’s protest was in violation of an “exclusion zone” law, which bans anti-abortion protests or prayer vigils within a 200-meter radius of a facility that provides abortions.
“I was approaching no one on that day. I wasn’t calling out. I was standing quietly by the roadside,” Rose Docherty, told The Free Press reporter Madeline Kearns. “I am worried about a society that’s willing to lock up a 74-year-old grandmother for offering consensual conversation.” Docherty says she held the sign for about 90 minutes before two police officers approached, handcuffed her, and took her to the police station where she was fingerprinted, swabbed for DNA, and had a mugshot taken.
“It was a surreal experience,” Docherty told Kearns. “I just thought, I’m a 74-year-old elderly woman—what are you afraid of that you feel that you want to handcuff me?” If Docherty is convicted, she could face a fine of up to £10,000 (about $12,889).
Last month, Vice President J.D. Vance singled out Scotland’s anti-abortion protest law in a speech highlighting threats to free speech in Europe. “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,” Vance said at the Munich Security Conference.
However, Vance’s comments appear to have exaggerated the government’s actual directive. While not explicitly going after silent prayer in a private home, a Scottish government letter obtained by The Times still leaves plenty of room for concern. The letter states that “activities within a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary or zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the zone and are done intentionally or recklessly.”
This isn’t the first time individuals have been punished in Great Britain for expressing their pro-life views. Across Britain, people violating similar laws designed to create free-speech carveouts around abortion clinics have been arrested not just for protesting—but for simply praying in their own heads. Last year, Adam Smith-Conor was convicted on criminal charges for praying silently near a Bournemouth abortion clinic. In 2022, police arrested Isabel Vaughan-Spruce for praying silently near an abortion clinic in Birmingham. The same year, a local priest was arrested for holding a sign near an abortion clinic reading “Praying for Freedom of Speech.” He faced a second charge for parking his car—which had a bumper sticker reading “Unborn Lives Matter” on it—inside the censorship zone.
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