Back Off Scotland

Back Off Scotland lifts the curtain on the award-winning grassroots campaign that transformed abortion access in Scotland. Co-founded in 2020 by university students Lucy Grieve and Alice Murray, the campaign began with a determination to end the intimidation and harassment faced by people accessing and providing abortion care at their local sexual health clinic – and grew into a movement that helped secure safe access zones around abortion services across the whole of Scotland. Drawing on hundreds of testimonies collected by the campaign, this powerful account centres the voices of women who encountered anti-abortion activists outside clinics, while taking readers behind the scenes of the years-long fight for legislative change. From the campaign’s beginnings and the obstacles faced along the way to the moment Scotland finally introduced nationwide protections, it is an extraordinary story of persistence, community and grassroots activism. But the fight is not over. Looking back at the history of abortion rights in Scotland and forward to the reforms still needed, Back Off Scotland asks what meaningful access to abortion care really looks like – and what must happen next. Intimate, urgent and ultimately hopeful, Back Off Scotland is the story of an underdog campaign that proved ordinary people can create extraordinary change