IT’S not often that you see politicians from all parties putting their differences to one side and coming together.

Yet that is exactly what happened yesterday when MSPs from across our Parliament came together to sign the final proposal for my Safe Access Zones Bill.

The bill itself would create 150-metre “safe access zones” or buffer zones, outside hospitals and clinics that provide abortion services. This would stop the shameful anti-choice protests that have become all too common across our country.

Me and my team set up a table in the garden lobby at Holyrood and within minutes we had a queue of MSPs wanting to sign up.

The First Minister Humza Yousaf, Labour leader Anas Sarwar, LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton and my Scottish Green colleagues, Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, were among the first to come over to show their support.

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They were followed by SNP MSPs like Karen Adam and Bill Kidd, Labour MSPs like Mercedes Villalba and Monica Lennon, and even Tory MSPs like Pam Gosal and Liz Smith to sign a proposal that will end the disgraceful protests that we have seen outside hospitals and abortion service providers all over Scotland.

Within 30 minutes, we had reached the 18 signatures that we needed for the bill to be lodged. By the end of the afternoon, we had more than 50 and expect more in the days ahead. This does not include the Scottish Government ministers who have given their support but are not allowed to sign bills.

It showed the strength of feeling in our Parliament, a strength that is more than mirrored outside Holyrood.

Far too many people have suffered harassment and abuse from anti-choice protest groups that have set out specifically to intimidate people at what is often a very difficult and emotional time.

They have tried to use shame and guilt as weapons, and some of the banners and slogans that have been used are totally inappropriate and heartless.

These tactics and these placards should have been left firmly in the past rather than being brandished and waved around for all to see outside medical centres across our country.

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The consultation for my bill had more than 12,000 responses. Some of the stories that people shared with me were heartbreaking and shocking. A lot of women shared some of their most painful moments.

The thing that stood out for me most was the lack of humanity shown by the protests. Because that’s what this process is about. It’s about humanity and its people.

It is about the young woman who is already going through a traumatic time that is being made worse by protesters setting out to intimidate her as she goes to her appointment. It is about the doctors and nurses who are being confronted with a gauntlet of intimidation on their way to work.

It is these stories and these experiences that made me bring my bill in the first place and that have shaped the approach that we are taking.

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I’ve been very grateful for the great work of campaign groups like Back Off Scotland and the Scottish Trades Union Congress as well as medical bodies like the Royal College of GPs and the British Medical Association.

It has taken years of campaigning and work for us to get to this stage. I am sure there will be further hurdles ahead, but we will overcome them. Now, at last, safe access zones are finally within touching distance.

The bill will be brought before Parliament in the months ahead. When it passes it will be a landmark day for reproductive rights in our country. But, as this week has so brutally underlined, they are only one part of the change that is needed across the UK.

We need to consider every aspect of how people access abortion services. Right from the current demand for two signatures, which the Scottish Greens want to end, to the availability of services beyond 20 weeks. At present, far too many people are having to make the journey to England, often hundreds of miles, to access late-stage abortion services.

The heartbreaking story of Carla Foster, who has been sentenced to 28 months in prison, has rightly shocked people all across the UK and beyond. It exposed a system that is badly out of date and inflicted injustice on a vulnerable woman.

Prisons are brutal and unforgiving places. Nobody should be imprisoned for the choices they make with their body, and there is nobody who benefits from a mother of three being taken away from her children for more than two years. It was a Victorian-era punishment using a Victorian-era law.

Abortion rights are healthcare and should be treated as such.

They should not be criminalised or stigmatised.

Throughout the process surrounding my bill, I have spoken to and met with people who have been harassed and targeted.

I have told them that I want to work with them to ensure that nobody else ever has to go through what they did or suffer in the way they have. I’m not going to let them down.