CV NEWS FEED // The author of Scotland’s stringent “buffer zone” abortion laws stated that praying within one’s home, if the home is within an abortion clinic’s 200-meter (656-ft) “buffer zone,” could be an offense if it’s visible from outside of the home.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reported that during the BBC’s Scotcast, Scottish Parliament Member Gillian Mackay, the Scottish Green Party’s spokesperson on health and social care and author of the legislation, repeatedly stated that a citizen could not be punished for praying within his or her home, calling the accusation “absolute nonsense.” However, later in the program she conceded that it could be possible in certain situations.
The conversation was sparked by JD Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, where the vice president called out Europe and the United Kingdom for restricting free speech, specifically mentioning Scotland’s restrictions and how they could endanger citizens praying privately in their own homes near abortion clinics.
Scotcast host Martin Geissler pressed Mackay and asked about “performative prayer,” or prayer that includes obvious physical motions that are made to be seen but often not considered to be reflective of true devotion.
“If you’re standing at a window with your hands together in front of your face in that classic, that classic image of prayer,” he asked, “if you’re standing at a window so people can see you, then could it be interpreted as an offense?”
Mackay answered, “That then depends on who’s passing the window.”
However, she added that she doesn’t “know anyone that can pray loudly or performatively to be seen from outside their own house.”
She continued insisting that Vance’s assessment of the situation was incorrect.
Lois McLatchie Miller, Scottish spokesperson for ADF International, commented on Mackay’s condemnation of performative prayer.
“The accusation of prayer being ‘performative’ rather than genuine lies in the eye of the beholder,” Miller said. “Who are the police to doubt the genuineness of somebody’s faith, based on where they are located, and the position of their hands?”
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