Arrested Again—for Holding a Sign
Rose Docherty, a 75-year-old grandmother with two hip replacements, spent two hours in a police cell last week—for quietly holding a placard outside a hospital.(Martin Shields for The Free Press)
The UK’s clampdown on free expression snags 75-year-old Rose Docherty—for the second time. Her alleged crime: offering to chat outside a hospital that performs abortions.
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Last week, a 75-year-old grandmother named Rose Docherty was arrested in Scotland, for standing outside a hospital where abortions are performed while holding a sign that read: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
If that sentence sounds familiar, it’s because this was the second time Docherty has been arrested, for exactly the same reason.
In February, as my colleague Madeleine Kearns reported, Docherty was put in handcuffs and taken to a police station—because she had been silently holding the same sign outside the same hospital.
“I didn’t speak about abortion,” Docherty told The Free Press yesterday through her legal counsel. “I simply offered anyone the chance to chat about anything.”
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