GLASGOW, Scotland (LifeSiteNews) — A Scottish grandmother appeared in court Friday after having been criminally charged for holding a sign within 200 meters of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital that read, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
In 2024 the Scottish legislature passed a law establishing 200-meter-wide “exclusion zones” or “buffer zones” surrounding all Scottish abortion clinics. The law forbids harassment, intimidation, and “influencing” of anyone seeking to access abortion.
Rose Docherty, 75, was charged with “influencing” within the buffer zone “despite only having stood peacefully and silently offering consensual conversation and not having approached any individual, nor making any statement on abortion,” according to the attorney group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing Docherty.
Docherty is the first person to be charged under the new law.
Following her arrest, the 75-year-old grandmother was held in custody for several hours. She was refused a chair to sit on in her cell, despite making it known that she had a double hip replacement.
“I can’t believe I am here today. I simply stood, in love and compassion, offering consensual conversation to anyone who wanted to engage,” said Docherty following her court hearing.
“Nobody should be criminalized just for offering a chat,” she declared. “Conversation is not a crime on the streets of Glasgow.”
READ: UK pro-lifer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce criminally charged for standing quietly outside abortion center
“It is not a crime to have a chat on the streets of Glasgow. Rose merely held a sign offering consensual conversations to other adults in the area,” said Lois McLatchie Miller, Scottish spokesperson for ADF.
“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 Miller.
“This is not a case about harassment, intimidation or violent protest – this is simply a peaceful grandmother, who held a sign offering to speak to anyone who would like to engage,” she added.
“In a win for Rose’s liberty, the prosecution today rolled back bail conditions, previously described as ‘disproportionate’ by ADF International, which had prevented Rose from attending an area far wider than the buffer zone itself,” noted ADF.
Scotland’s 2024 buffer zone law is so broad, vague, and overreaching that its originator, Scottish Greens MP Gillian Mackay, was forced to admit earlier this year that abortion buffer zones could criminalize private prayer at home within a buffer zone if visible through the window of homes near abortion clinics.
Following Docherty’s arrest, the U.S. State Department expressed concern:
The arrest of Rose Docherty is another egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe.
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.
Docherty’s next hearing is scheduled to take place on January 13, 2026.
