US embassy urged to correct JD Vance lies about buffer zones
Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay has written to the US Ambassador to the UK, Jane D Hartley, urging her to issue a statement correcting the record after Vice President JD Vance’s misinformation about safe access zones in Scotland.
Ms Mackay introduced the bill that secured 200 metre wide safe access zones, or buffer zones, around abortion service providers to stop the intimidating anti-choice protests that were taking place across Scotland. Private prayer at home has never been impacted by this Act.
In a speech last week, VP Vance claimed that people in Scotland were told that private prayer in their own homes would be against the law within a safe access zone and that people were encouraged to report anyone they thought guilty of “thought crime.” This has never been true.
Ms Mackay said:
“What JD Vance said about my Safe Access Zones Act was completely wrong. He either knows nothing about it and chose to speak about it anyway or he knew exactly what he was doing and was happy to lie about it.
“Either way, he has misrepresented the bill and spread dangerous misinformation about the laws in Scotland, and that needs to be corrected.
“I hope that the US embassy will correct the record both for Mr Vance and, more importantly, for the millions of people who will have seen his false and grossly misleading claims."
Ms Mackay added:
“The politics that JD Vance and Donald Trump represent are everything I’m against. They have eroded and undermined reproductive rights and pursued a racist and far right agenda.
“They have shown a total disregard for the truth, whether it is the conspiracy theories they have peddled about the 2020 election or the misleading claims that have been made about my Act. It is time for political leaders everywhere to stand up to them.”
Text of Gillian Mackay’s letter to the US embassy.
Dear Ambassador Hartley
I am writing to you following Vice President JD Vance’s claims that people in Scotland were told that private prayer in their own homes would be against the law within a safe access zone and that people were encouraged to report anyone they thought guilty of “thought crime.” This is not true.
It was my Act that established safe access zones in the first place, in order to stop the intimidation and harassment which was taking place outside abortion service providers across Scotland.
The letter that VP Vance referenced does not mention private prayer and does not suggest it would be criminalised. Nobody in Scotland has been arrested for privately praying in their own home.
This was something that was scrutinised a lot in the committee process and I would have expected the Vice President to familiarise himself with the background before speaking about it.
As the US government’s representative in the UK, I urge you to correct the record and release a statement making clear that nobody is at risk of arrest for private prayer in their home and never has been, and clarifying that what VP Vance said does not represent the views of the US Embassy.
Yours sincerely
Gillian Mackay MSP