Home prayer may be criminal in Scottish abortion buffer zones, lawmaker admits

Prayer inside one’s own home could break Scotland’s abortion facility buffer zone laws, a new law’s author admitted. In a recent interview with BBC’s Scotcast, Scottish Green Party parliament member Gillian Mackay said that performative prayer with clasped hands glimpsed through a window could be grounds for prosecution. Mackay suggested that such a prayer’s legality would depend on who passes the window and witnesses the prayer.

The buffer zone law, passed last July, criminalizes attempts to influence a mother’s decision about abortion within roughly 600 feet of an abortion center. Prohibited activity includes protests, preaching, or silent vigils. Violators of the law could be fined over $12,000, and fines for the most serious offenses would not be limited, according to a letter obtained by Alliance Defending Freedom International.

Is Mackay’s admission a departure from her party’s previous comments? After U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said in a speech in Munich that Scotland’s buffer law criminalized in-home prayer, the Green Party criticized Vance for spreading misinformation. The party asked for a White House apology.

But in her Scotcast interview, Mackay still took issue with Vance’s remarks, trying to distinguish between performative and private prayers. Nothing in the law mentions private prayer, she said.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on a 74-year-old woman’s arrest for breaching the buffer law.