Would the Scottish buffer zones law pass with Donald Trump in power?

The National

07-05-2025

But since the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act came into effect, it has attracted unwanted attention from across the Atlantic following the election of Donald Trump as US President.
Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance used a speech to argue Europe was seeing a shift away from democratic values and cited the buffer zones law as way in which the 'basic liberties of religious Britons' were under threat.
In an extraordinary intervention, he falsely claimed the Scottish Government distributed letters to people who live within a zone warning them that private prayer 'may amount to breaking the law'.
In a separate incident, the US state department said it would be monitoring the case of a woman being prosecuted for the alleged breach of a zone outside a Bournemouth clinic, adding it was concerned about freedom of expression in the UK.
It was even reported after this that there were concerns UK protections for abortion clinics could impact a potential trade deal with the US.
All of this has led to a big question: would the buffer zones law in Scotland pass now, given the influence and power of the Trump administration?
READ MORE: Scottish Government urged to extend Glasgow hospital buffer zone
Lucy Grieve and Alice Murray were possibly more astounded than anyone when Vance began talking about a law that came about partly thanks to a campaign called Back Off Scotland that they started from their university bedrooms in 2020.
When The National asked them whether they thought the law would pass through Parliament so easily now, they both felt it still would have got the green light but would have faced stronger pushback.
Murray said: 'I think it would still pass but there may have been more challenge.
'I think there is a slight ethos that probably does come from Trump that things were going too far for a while in terms of inclusivity and progressiveness.
JD Vance used a speech to criticise the buffer zones law in Scotland (Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth)
'At the moment, there is a bit of sense things were getting out of hand and now we need to pull it back and since that [attitude] does exist [maybe there would be push back], but it just depends whether or not people tied this up with that.'
Grieve highlighted that given a huge number of people have come off Twitter/X because of the behaviour and comments of owner Elon Musk – who until the last few weeks was a special US government employee – they may also have struggled to raise awareness of their campaign if the law was going through Parliament now.
Grieve said: 'I think it would be maybe more difficult [the passage of the law]. Lots of people have come off Twitter and that was a big way we rallied support.
'That's Elon Musk and his extremism that has made a lot of our supporters go off Twitter, so it could have affected things.
'But I think people are very pro-buffer zones because it's such a precise mechanism of balancing [rights].'
(Image: PA) And that's why both Grieve and Murray don't feel people in Scotland should be overly worried about abortion rights going backwards as both of them have confidence that society here is in an entirely different place on abortion compared to the US.
Murray said: 'There is a bit more of a basic societal response that abortion is healthcare in the UK and it's not an extra add-on.'
There is no doubt certain anti-abortion groups such as 40 Days for Life – which has been regularly staging protests outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow – have felt emboldened by the interventions of the likes of JD Vance. More than 100 people turned out to a protest just outside the hospital's zone last month.
But Grieve and Murray are firmly of the belief that a move like the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US – which meant millions of women lost the right to have an abortion – is never going to occur in these islands.
READ MORE: Patrick Harvie: It's time for ministers to stop politicking and investigate Trump
Grieve said rights have advanced so much now – with Westminster set to consider decriminalising abortion in England and Wales this summer – anti-abortionists are actually defending the 1967 Abortion Act so as to stop them going any further.
'I think people understand America is so far gone in terms of their abortion rights that they never want to end up like that,' Grieve said.
'I think having buffer zones wrapped up in a conversation about trade deals, as it was reported, I think the very large majority would think that is absolutely crazy, and that there is no place for it.
'I think we're in a place where we are winning in terms of strengthening our reproductive rights in Scotland and the UK and they're [anti-abortionists] in a position where instead of saying they want to revoke them, they are now starting to defend the 1967 Act as the basis of our abortion law because they think decriminalisation is too radical.
'Because the vast majority of abortions are provided or funded by the NHS across the UK, you couldn't turn that off overnight like you could with Roe vs Wade. It is seen as vital here, it's not this random outlier.'
Murray added: 'We should have a reasonable amount of worry about Donald Trump's power and influence, but when you look at the work that is done on the ground by abortion activists and when you look at all the positive things that are happening, we shouldn't be too scared about a turn in that direction.'