A Scottish grandmother has been arrested for the second time and charged with breaching an abortion clinic buffer zone after standing silently with a sign that offered consensual conversations.
Rose Docherty, 75, was detained near Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, for holding a placard that read: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
She has been released on bail but was charged under Scotland’s draconian buffer zone law that bans harassment, intimidation, and attempting to influence people within 200 metres of abortion facilities.
Mrs Docherty was previously arrested in August for peacefully holding her sign outside the same hospital. The case was dropped after it attracted strong criticism from the US State Department.
Commenting on her latest arrest, Mrs Docherty said, “Everybody has the right to engage in consensual conversation.
"I held my sign with love and compassion, inviting anyone who wants to chat, to do so – and stood peacefully, not approaching anyone.
“I should not be treated as a criminal for inviting people to chat with me – lending a listening ear.
"Conversation is not forbidden on the streets of Glasgow. And yet, this is the second time I have been arrested for doing just that.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF), which is supporting her, said she was held in custody for several hours without being offered a chair, despite having had a double hip replacement.
ADF has criticised her bail conditions as "disproportionate" - they ban her from entering an area wider than the actual buffer zone.
“It’s deeply concerning that Scottish policing resources are being ploughed into arresting and prosecuting a peaceful grandmother offering to speak to people in public, rather than focusing on the problems caused by real crime in Glasgow," said Lorcan Price, legal counsel for ADF International.
“This is not a case about harassment, intimidation or violent protest – this is simply a grandmother, who held a sign offering to speak to anyone who would like to engage.”
The buffer zone law was introduced by Green MSP Gillian Mackay, who was forced to admit earlier this year that prayer inside a private home within a buffer zone could potentially fall foul of the law “depending on who’s passing by the window.”
The US State Department has called Mrs Docherty's second arrest "tyrannical".
“The arrest of Rose Docherty is another egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe," it said in a statement to The Telegraph.
“When 75-year-old grandmothers are being arrested for standing peacefully and offering conversation, common sense and basic civility are under attack.
“The United States will always speak out against these violations of fundamental rights.”
US Vice President JD Vance cited Scotland’s buffer zone law as an example of restrictions on free expression in his speech at the Munich Security Conference in February.
