JD Vance has been labelled an “extremist” after he launched a broadside in opposition to the UK’s efforts to guard ladies in search of an abortion.
The US vice-president’s criticisms of UK and Scottish insurance policies on secure entry zones round abortion clinics – a part of a wide-ranging tirade in opposition to Europe on Friday – have been derided as inaccurate and misogynistic by plenty of teams, politicians and governments.
Heidi Stewart, the chief govt of Bpas, the UK’s main supplier of abortion companies, mentioned secure zones – buffer areas of 150 metres round abortion clinics designed to cease ladies being harassed with leaflets, proven footage of foetuses, or having to move by vigils – have been important to guard ladies’s entry to important healthcare in an “overwhelmingly pro-choice nation”.
“Bpas … will at all times stay proud to face in opposition to misogynistic and anti-democratic interference with British ladies’s reproductive rights by international extremists, whether or not they’re the vice-president of the US or not,” she mentioned.
The Labour MP Stella Creasy, who campaigned for the secure zones which have been launched final yr, posted an image of a scene from the dystopian tv collection The Handmaid’s Story alongside with the phrases: “And so it begins … ” She accused Vance of calling “for the precise to harass ladies having an abortion” as a result of “our our bodies are their battleground, our human rights their goal”.
In Vance’s speech on the Munich safety convention, he mentioned the UK had “positioned the fundamental liberties of non secular Britons … within the crosshairs”, citing the prosecution of Adam Smith-Connor, a physiotherapist and military veteran. Vance mentioned he had been charged with the “heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for 3 minutes, not obstructing anybody, not interacting with anybody, simply silently praying on his personal”.
Smith-Connor, who’s receiving authorized assist from Alliance Defending Freedom Worldwide, a conservative Christian authorized advocacy group within the US, was convicted of breaching a secure zone in October final yr after refusing repeated requests to maneuver away from exterior an abortion clinic in Bournemouth in November 2022.
A neighborhood officer spoke to him for an hour and 40 minutes and requested him to go away, however he refused. Smith-Connor was handed a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay greater than £9,000 prices after the case introduced by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council.
Vance additionally claimed the Scottish authorities had distributed letters to residents whose homes lay “inside so-called secure entry zones, warning them that even non-public prayer inside their very own properties might quantity to breaking the regulation”. Shortly after his assertion, a Scottish authorities spokesperson mentioned: “The vice-president’s declare is inaccurate. Personal prayer at residence shouldn’t be prohibited inside secure entry zones and no letter has ever instructed it was.”
The Abortion Companies (Protected Entry Zones) (Scotland) Act, launched final yr, banned “silent prayer” to forestall mass silent vigils which have been utilized by giant teams of US pro-life protesters comparable to 40 Days for Life. The regulation states that the actions are solely banned if they’re more likely to trigger alarm or misery to somebody accessing abortion companies.
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The Scottish Inexperienced MSP Gillian Mackay, who pushed for the introduction of secure zones, mentioned Vance was spreading “surprising and shameless misinformation”. She mentioned: “He is without doubt one of the strongest individuals on this planet however he’s peddling complete nonsense and harmful scaremongering.”
The managing director for the Abortion Help Community, Camille Kumar, accused him of “dog-whistle messaging” and an assault on “fragile” ladies’s rights. “It’s deeply regarding that inside days of pardoning [protesters] within the US for his or her harassment of girls and pregnant individuals exterior abortion clinics, JD Vance is now making an attempt to fire up anti-abortion rhetoric within the UK.”
The director of the Finish Violence, Andrea Simon, mentioned: “Protected entry buffer zones have been launched to make sure that ladies can safely entry abortion companies with out worry of harassment. That’s important, as a result of abortion is a basic healthcare proper for ladies within the UK, which have to be protected.”
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