The proposal to arrange buffer zones round hospitals relies on a easy precept – girls attending abortion clinics don't want recommendation shouted at them by strangers on the pavement outdoors.
Too usually that uninvited intrusion is a bellowing gauntlet of noise and signage designed to intimidate, and to not inform, girls about their selections.
The tactic of trying to bully girls out of creating selections about their very own our bodies has drifted throughout the Atlantic from the US.
Its Supreme Court docket choice permitting particular person states to ban the process has invigorated pro-life campaigners.
A lot of the opposition to abortion comes from sincerely held non secular convictions concerning the sanctity of life.
Persons are entitled to their views however when these are mixed with aggressive, illiberal and self-righteous attitudes of pavement protesters, the state of affairs turns into harmful.
The consensus from yesterday’s Scottish summit on entry to clinics is encouraging.
Glasgow Metropolis Council needs to arrange a pilot undertaking that would result in laws banning protest inside a sure distance of clinics.
Comparable measures are already in place in no less than one London borough council, so discovering a means of co-ordinating with clinics and regulation enforcement businesses needs to be doable.
A sound authorized answer that respects the rights of ladies attending clinics and doesn't infringe on the appropriate to protest should be discovered, too.
Progress by consensus – a precept usually lacking in public discourse in Scotland – is the right counterweight to the intolerance of anti-abortion loudmouths.
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