Scotland on Sunday readers' letters: Scottish extremists pose a threat to reproductive rights

As a woman of reproductive age, it was very reassuring to read your piece by Connor Matchet (SoS, 3 July) stating that the majority of Scots support buffer zones. The uptick and escalation of clinic harassment in this country has been chilling to watch.

However, America should teach us that minority extremists can still be dangerous.

Polls frequently show that a high percentage of Americans support the Roe v Wade ruling that made abortion legal. This support for legal abortion remains high across states and age groups.

Sadly, the public support for Roe v Wade was not enough to protect this nearly 50-year-old ruling from a small number of Republican fundamentalists in the Supreme Court. Hard-won human rights can be taken away despite public support.

Anti-abortion campaigners outside Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth Hospital

It is therefore important to remember just how much influence the American religious right has in Scotland. Many of the anti-choice protesters who picket Scottish hospitals are affiliated with 40 Days for Life – a Texan organisation.

It is imperative that reproductive rights in Scotland are as protected as much as possible through buffer zones to prevent this Texan brand of clinic harassment. Let’s learn from America and not wait until the war on bodily autonomy really takes hold on our shores.

Gemma Clark, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Tragic parallels?

The South of Ireland split away from the UK in 1922 after several years of violence and thousands of people killed. As soon as it got its independence Ireland became a Catholic state.

It was a tragic development because it meant that the Protestant North of Ireland would not willingly unite with the South. So then the most extreme nationalist elements, alias the IRA, decided that if the North could not be coaxed into unity, then it would have to forced into it through violence.

Could Scotland blunder into a tragedy like that? The separatists need to coax a lot of unionists over to their side if they are to win the next referendum. Coaxing would require a determination to improve health provision, education results, manufacturing output and budget deficit. It would require realistic policies on energy, currency, taxation, pensions, debt share and future relations with the UK. It would require a cessation of separatist denunciation of all things British.

However, like the Irish nationalists in 1922, the SNP have turned their backs on coaxing the unionists to join them. They have chosen confrontation over coaxing. They are going down the path of hijacking general election results, fomenting mass discontent and pandering to the most extremist elements. No doubt if it does all end in tragedy, the vainglorious leaders responsible for the foolish decisions which landed us in that dire situation will be safely ensconced in some other country and writing their memoirs to exonerate themselves.

Les Reid, Edinburgh

Deal or no deal

I was delighted to hear that Labour both at Westminster and Holyrood are to have no deals with the SNP in the future, closing the door an any hope the SNP had of a coalition deal with any main party.

Nicola Sturgeon’s hopes and plans for a second referendum in 2023 are now thoroughly scuttled with her anti-English plan sunk like her ferries before they have even been launched.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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