Praying at home may be criminal offense in Scotland under new law
Scotland has enacted new abortion legislation that could criminalize praying at home within designated zones. The Abortion Services Act (Scotland) 2024 could result in prosecution for activities conducted in their own homes if these actions cause “harassment, alarm, or distress” to staff and patients at abortion clinics.
Residents in Edinburgh received letters warning them about the new law, The Telegraph reported, noting that the legislation establishes 200-meter “safe access zones” around all abortion clinics in the country.
A letter sent to residents in an Edinburgh zone stated: “Activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a zone could be an offense if they can be seen or heard within the zone and are done intentionally or recklessly.”
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Less serious offenses could result in fines up to £10,000 ($13,000), while the most serious offenses carry an unlimited fine, according to the letter.
Michael Robinson, executive director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, called the legislation “sinister and deeply Orwellian,” suggesting that this could include “someone silently praying in their front garden.”
An Edinburgh resident shared her surprise upon receiving the letter. “As a Christian, I pray all the time,” she was quoted as saying. “To think that this could now be a criminal offense, even within the vicinity of my own home, is truly unbelievable.”
The Scottish government’s guidance accompanying the law lists “religious preaching” and “silent vigils” as examples of activities that could be prohibited if conducted with “intent or recklessness,” noted GB News.
A spokesman for the Scottish government defended the legislation. “Safe access zones are designed to safeguard a woman’s right to access healthcare. The legislation that creates them intentionally does not criminalize any particular behavior, including prayer.”
However, pro-life campaigners fear that praying within these zones could be deemed an offense, especially following the arrests of several activists for harassment and public order violations in England and Northern Ireland.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said her group would “vigilantly” monitor the application of buffer zone legislation across Britain.
The U.K.-based Christian Institute noted that under the Scottish Act, people risk an unlimited fine for handing out pro-life literature within 200 meters of an abortion facility, speaking to anyone about abortion, or praying silently. The law prohibits behavior that seeks to influence “the decision of another person to access, provide or facilitate” an abortion. It also criminalizes any individual deemed to “prevent or impede” or cause “harassment, alarm or distress” to someone in relation to their “decision to access, provide or facilitate” an abortion.
Similar legislation is set to be enforced across England and Wales at the end of October.
The English legislation criminalizes activities “in any location” within a 150-meter radius of abortion providers that could deter or distress staff and patients if those activities are “visible from a public highway, public right of way, open space to which the public have access, or the curtilage of an abortion clinic,” according to GB News.
Writing in The Herald, Lucy Grieve, co-founder of Back Off Scotland, stated that the activists’ “next priority” is campaigning to expand Scotland’s abortion services and that they are “looking forward to working with the Scottish government over the coming months to look at ways in which we can reform Scotland’s archaic abortion law,” noted the Christian Institute.
