The Catholic Church has attacked Glasgow City Council for "restricting freedom and local democracy" as it considers banning pro-life vigils outside clinics and hospitals.
Anthony Horan, director of the Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office, said the proposals for 'buffer zones' were an attempt to silence the voices of those who speak up for unborn children.
He told the Scottish Catholic Observer (SCO) opponents of abortion were entitled to gather peacefully and one such group, 40 Days for Life which organises vigils during Lent outside hospitals in Glasgow and Dundee, had been "blatantly and grossly misrepresented by the council”.
On June 29th, the council backed a motion designed to explore the legal options to enable buffer zones to move prayer vigils and pro-life protesters away from entrances so patients can enter and leave premises without feeling intimidated. The move gained cross-party support and the council is now to consult NHS staff, police and the Scottish Government about the idea.
Mr Horan said: “We should be deeply troubled by this latest proposal which seeks to remove and silence those who speak up for women and their unborn babies.
“It is also extremely concerning that the 40 Days for Life Glasgow group was so blatantly and grossly misrepresented by the council.”
He added: "Individual groups who bear witness to the devastating effects of abortion are entitled to gather peacefully in public spaces."
A spokeswoman for Society for Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) Scotland, told the SCO: “It is appalling that Glasgow City Council would support such an infringement on people’s freedom of speech.
“Throughout the council’s discussion, councillors regularly mischaracterised the nature of these vigils. There have been no convictions for harassment at these vigils; there is no evidence to support the assertions these councillors made—they are simply untrue."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel