SCOTLAND’S health boards must not permit anti-abortion protesters planning events at four major hospitals to intimidate staff or patients, trade union leaders have said.
The STUC said it would be contacting all relevant health authorities to ensure they have in place plans to ensure the pickets cause minimal disruption.
General secretary Grahame Smith cited support from Scottish Government ministers for its stance, which comes on the back of revelations at the weekend that US-style pro-life groups will target major hospitals across the country during the Christian season of Lent.
Forty Days For Life will stage vigils at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital and Ninewells Hospital, Dundee across three months as part of a worldwide campaign running during the Christian season of Lent.
The group, founded in Texas in 2004, launched its first Scottish campaign last year, insists it will be conducting prayer vigils and would not harass women seeking abortions but has sparked allegations of intimidation being compared with practices outside many US clinics.
Last year the groups staged protests at the Queen Elizabeth but were warned by the health authority not to enter hospital grounds.
Grahame Smith said: “Our position is very clear. We support women’s choice on abortion, with publicly funded services to meet women’s needs. “Women should be able to access services without fear of harassment or intimidation, and the staff who work in our hospitals should be able to get to work without harassment too.
“This view is shared by the Scottish Government, and Aileen Campbell MSP, Minister for Public Health and Sport, has given us clear assurances on this. We will be contacting the relevant Health Boards to ensure plans are in place to avoid any disruption to services or intimidation of staff.’
In a letter to Mr Smith last year Ms Campbell said that almost all abortions in Scotland were carried out within NHS hospitals.
She added: “We fully expect health boards to prioritize the safety of women accessing the service and their staff in any operational plan they may develop.”
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