‘Far-right’ group planning to ‘brick up’ Scottish clinic over trans healthcare and abortion
The Scottish Family Party threatened to use bricks to block the entrance to the Sandyford Clinic. (Twitter)
The Scottish Family Party has threatened to ‘brick up’ Scotland’s Sandyford clinic over its provision of trans youth healthcare and abortion.
The Sandyford sexual health clinic in Glasgow is Scotland’s provider of gender-affirming care for all ages, providing support including hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) and surgery referral for adults, and physically reversible puberty blockers for trans youth.
The clinic also provides contraception, sexual health services and abortion care.
During an hour-long YouTube live stream, two members of the right-wing Scottish Family Party threatened to brick up the entrance to the clinic.
Party leader and former UKIP candidate Richard Lucas told viewers to “bring their brick” for the planned act, which fellow member Niall Fraser explained was to “stop kids entering the building”.
Fraser, a former candidate for George Galloway’s All for Unity Party, said: “We have to block the entrance, so we’re going to brick it up physically, metaphorically, whatever way you want to say. We’re going to impede people getting into the building.”
Fraser noted that because the group’s attempts to block off the entrance will take place on a Saturday, no one will actually be entering or leaving the clinic.
“It’s more of a call to arms for the people of Glasgow,” he said.
Lucas confirmed to PinkNews the protest is against trans-affirming care, sexual health education and abortion, and that the party wanted to “protect children, born and unborn, from harm”.
The socially conservative political party was founded in 2017 and has yet to win a single seat in the Scottish Parliament. It was among one of the worst-performing political parties in the 2021 elections.
It was included in HOPE not hate’s 2022 report on far-right extremism over its policies, which include opposing so-called transgender “ideology”.
During the live stream, Fraser suggested he believes that the cause of preventing access to gender-affirming care for trans youth is worth a criminal record.
“I’m willing to do time for it,” he said. “I’m not going to have Scottish kids pumped full of hormones, confused and ultimately abandoned after they go through this process.”
Trans youth are not administered hormones until they are 18 years old. Puberty blockers are only accessible after intense evaluation and with parental consent.
Patients are monitored by health experts to ensure that their treatment is right for them.
A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Patients should be able to access [healthcare services] without fear of intimidation or harassment.
“At all times, our healthcare teams treat users with respect, compassion and professionalism and we would expect that others will respect these values.”
