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VP Vance warns European leaders ‘free speech is in retreat’

Vice President JD Vance addresses the Munich Security Conference, discussing foreign free speech rights and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Charges against a 75-year-old grandmother have been dropped after she was arrested for holding a sign offering conversation in an abortion buffer zone, according to a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom International.

In February, Rose Docherty was arrested outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for holding a sign that read, "Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want." She stood within 200 meters of the hospital campus— which was designated a "safe access zone" under Scotland’s abortion law.

Docherty was the first person to be arrested and charged under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act, which went into effect in September 2024, according to the BBC. 

The law criminalizes protests or vigils within 200 meters, or 656 feet, of 30 clinics offering abortion services in Scotland. A similar law exists in England and Wales that makes it illegal to "influence someone’s decision to access an abortion within 500 feet of any abortion facility."

Rose Docherty was arrested for holding a sign offering conversation in an abortion buffer zone in Scotland. (Rose Docherty/ADF International)

RETIRED BRITISH WOMAN ON TRIAL FOR HOLDING SIGN OFFERING TO TALK TO WOMAN CONSIDERING ABORTION

Alliance Defending Freedom International, which supported Docherty’s legal case, announced Thursday that Scotland’s public prosecutor, the Procurator fiscal, had dropped her case and the formal warning against her.

"This is a victory not just for me, but for everyone in Scotland who believes we should be free to hold a peaceful conversation," Docherty said in a statement.

"I stood with love and compassion, ready to listen to anyone who wanted to talk. Criminalizing kindness has no place in a free society."

ADF International spokeswoman Lois McLatchie Miller hailed the "free speech win" in a post on X.

Adam Smith-Connor was convicted in 2024 for praying silently near an abortion clinic and ordered to pay prosecution costs amounting to about $12,000. He appealed the conviction in July 2025. (ADF UK)

GRANDMOTHER ARRESTED AT ABORTION CLINIC WARNS OF EXPANDING FREE SPEECH ‘BUFFER ZONES’

"No one should fear arrest for offering a consensual conversation. Rose’s case is a stark example of how ‘buffer zone’ laws can be weaponised to silence peaceful expression," Lorcan Price, legal counsel for ADF International, said in a press release.

At the time of Docherty’s arrest, the U.S. State Department weighed in, calling for freedom of expression to be protected.  

"We call on governments, whether in Scotland or around the world, to respect freedom of expression for all," the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor (DRL) posted to X. The bureau supports individual liberty and democratic freedoms across the world.

The Procurator Fiscal Service told Fox News Digital it could not provide information on Docherty's case.

Fox News’ Kendall Tietz contributed to this report.

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