Pro-life win in Scottish buffer zone case

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has welcomed a ruling by Scottish courts to drop charges against a grandmother aged 75 arrested for holding a placard outside a Glasgow hospital.

Rose Docherty was detained by police in September 2025 near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for holding a sign reading: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want”.

She was the first person charged with breaking Scotland’s “buffer zone” law, the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones Scotland Act of 2024). This establishes protected zones of 200 metres around all premises providing abortion services.

Within such zones, it is defined as a criminal office to “behave in ways that could influence the decisions of women and staff to access services; impede their access; or otherwise cause alarm, harassment or distress.

On 27 April, Sheriff Stuart Reid of the  Sheriff Appeal Court in Glasgow dismissed charges that Docherty had sought to “influence” people within the buffer zone. Following her arrest, she said: “I was there to speak with people only if they wanted to speak with me. I wasn’t approaching anyone, I wasn’t behaving in a manner that was intimidating or harassing anyone.”

Reid found that the Prosecutor Fiscal had “failed to disclose an offence known to the law of Scotland”. During the hearing, the Crown told Reid it was still making enquiries regarding how many people, if any, had been influenced by Docherty’s conduct within the zone.

Reid dismissed the case in pro loco et tempore, meaning it could return to court should prosecutors bring improved evidence and decide a prosecution continues to be in the public interest.

Bishop John Keenan, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said the ruling was “an important reminder that peaceful, consensual conversation in a public place is protected, and that criminal offences must be clearly and properly made out on the evidence.”

He added: “This case should prompt a careful and thorough review of how “safe access zone” powers are applied so that they do not infringe fundamental rights.”

Docherty hailed the verdict as “ a major victory for free speech in Scotland and the UK. It shows that peacefully offering consensual conversation on a public street, which is all I have ever done, can never be a crime.”

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