‘Vance Was Right’ — Praying At Home Could Be a Crime ‘Depending on Who Passes Window’, Says Scottish MP

The author of Scotland’s draconian protest restrictions around abortion clinics has admitted that people who live within the anti-free speech zone could be committing an offence if they pray in their own homes “depending on who passes by the window”.

British legacy media and establishment politicians were quick to accuse U.S. Vice President JD Vance of spreading “misinformation” after he asserted at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that people could be arrested for praying in their homes if they live within the 200-metre (656ft) protest prohibition zones surrounding abortion clinics in Scotland.

However, in an interview with BBC Scotland’s Scotcast podcast, the legislation’s author, Gillian Mackay, appeared to confirm Vance’s warnings.

Despite having initially branded the vice president’s comments as “nonsense” and “shocking and shameless misinformation”, the leftist lawmaker admitted that prayer within a home could fall afoul of the law.

Asked whether someone was seen visibly praying at their window within the exclusion zone was committing an offence, the Member of the Scottish Parliament said: “That then depends on who’s passing the window.”

Yet she still attempted to maintain that Vance was wrong, saying: “I don’t know anyone​ who can pray loudly or performatively enough to be seen outside their own house… What JD Vance did was take it to the extreme. He clearly has an anti-abortion agenda and wants to spread that level of misinformation.”

Just days after Vance’s speech in Munich, in which he warned of increasing authoritarianism and threats to free speech from within Europe and the UK, a 74-year-old woman was arrested after holding a silent vigil outside of an abortion clinic in Scotland while carrying a sign reading: “Coercion is a crime. I’m here to talk, only if you want.”

The woman became the first to be arrested under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act, which was passed into law in 2023 but only came into effect last year. Given its recent enactment, it remains to be seen how police would treat someone living in the no-protest zone who was reported for praying at their window.

Last September, the leftist government in Edinburg sent letters to Scottish residents warning them that “activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a Zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the Zone and done intentionally or recklessly.”

The government went on to call on people to report their fellow citizens to the police if they believed them to be in violation of the law.

Responding to the apparent admission from Mackay that prayer inside a house could be considered criminal, Lois McLatchie Miller, Scottish spokesperson for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, said: “JD Vance was right to raise concerns – this law is an illiberal travesty.”

“Gillian Mackay confirmed that ‘performative’ prayer could be a crime, ‘depending on who is passing by the window’. The accusation of prayer being ‘performative’ rather than genuine lies in the eye of the beholder. Who are the police to doubt the genuineness of somebody’s faith, based on where they are located, and the position of their hands?”

“Clearly, the ‘buffer zones’ law is fundamentally flawed when it comes to undermining basic freedoms of speech, thought, and religion.”

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