Abortion Service Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill: equality impact assessment

Provisions of the Bill

A brief summary of the Bill’s provisions is provided below; more detailed information on the Bill can be found within the Policy Memorandum which is published on the Scottish Parliament website. The Bill will:

• create an automatic safe access zone comprising the premises which provide abortion services (“the protected premises”), the public area of the attaching grounds if there are any, and a zone (also being the public area) of 200m extending in all directions from the edge of the protected premises.
• allow health providers or Health Boards to respond to local circumstances by providing the ability for them to apply for an extension of a safe access zone if the current zone does not provide adequate protection;
• create offences within a safe access zone which prohibit behaviours in terms of their impacts, rather than providing an exhaustive list of prohibited behaviours and activities;
• safeguard the rights of those who wish to protest or otherwise demonstrate opposition to abortion by limiting the prohibition to only activities carried out (or which can be seen or heard) in public areas within the boundary of a zone.

It is important to note, that the Bill is intended to protect persons attending premises for the purpose of accessing treatment, information about treatment, advice about treatment and follow up appointments/after care. The Bill will also protect those seeking to provide or facilitate the treatment and will include those who provide information, or advice about abortion in premises which provide abortion services. The Bill has been developed to benefit those accessing and providing services. As service users will be pregnant when accessing abortion services, they will hold that protected characteristic until the pregnancy is terminated. There will be impacts on other groups who hold protected characteristics, as detailed in the key findings section, below.