A Green MSP has accused JD Vance, the Vice President of the United States, of spreading misinformation about Scotland’s abortion clinic “buffer zones.”
In a speech given at the Munich Security Conference last Friday, the VP claimed that the Scottish government distributed letters to residents “within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”
He added: “The government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime in Britain and across Europe.”
A Scottish government spokesperson responded shortly after: “The vice-president’s claim is incorrect. Private prayer at home is not prohibited within safe access zones and no letter has ever suggested it was.”
However, the letters sent did advise against such activities as putting posters on windows or protesting from private gardens.
Safe Access Zones are buffer zones around hospitals or clinics designed to prevent harassment of those providing or seeking abortion services.
They came into force last September and prohibit certain activities within 200m of the premises, including religious preaching, handing out leaflets, and silent vigils.
The Green MSP Gillian Mackay, who drew up the bill last year, said “This is shocking and shameless misinformation from VP Vance, who is either very badly informed about what my Act has done or he is knowingly misrepresenting it.”
“He is one of the most powerful people in the world but he is peddling total nonsense and dangerous scaremongering.”
Vance also denounced the prosecution of Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted of breaching an abortion safe zone whilst praying in Bournemouth in November last year.
Vance’s speech as a whole sharply criticised “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” raising recent events from several European nations that supposedly demonstrated “out-of-control migration” and threats to free speech.
While in Munich the Vice President met with the leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel. Support for the far-right party, suspected as “extremist” by a German court, has been increasing in the polls.
Germany’s Bundestag elections take place on Sunday 23 February, with results expected at the start of next week.
Vance also reiterated the Trump administration’s stance that Europe needed to “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence.”
Vance has previously stated that he would be in favour of a nation-wide ban on abortion in America, although in the run-up to last year’s election, he aligned with Trump in the run-up to last year’s by saying that it should be a state issue.
“J. D. Vance” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.