Scot Govt accused of censoring pro-lifers in plan to decriminalise abortion

The Scottish Government has come under fire for attempting to push “the right to abortion for any reason up to birth”.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley John Keenan criticised the Government for only appointing pro-abortionists to the group responsible for reviewing the current law and providing recommendations to the Government.

In Britain, abortion is legal for most reasons up to 24 weeks. The expert group will not consider arguments for lowering this limit, despite medical advances that see babies surviving outside the womb at 22 to 23 weeks.

‘Unique human life’

Bishop Keenan said the group has already “censored any contradictory views and opinions” of the current law, while ensuring its advice will “countenance no reduction in time limits or grounds for abortion, no matter what evidence is presented”.

The Bishop emphasised that “medical consensus holds that a unique human life begins at conception”, and many Scots “raise an eyebrow at the description of abortion as healthcare, when that abortion sadly ends another human life”.

He stated: “These reasonable positions merit a hearing in any expert group which the government has set up and on which it intends to depend.

“Yet the government has ensured that the group’s report will commend decriminalisation, effectively allowing the right to abortion for any reason up until birth.”

SNP

Earlier this year, the SNP voted to enshrine “the right to abortion” in any future constitution of an independent Scotland.

During the Scottish National Party’s 90th Annual Conference, delegates approved a radical pro-abortion resolution as official party policy.

The Conference claimed that “women’s rights are human rights, and access to safe, legal abortion is a fundamental aspect of healthcare and bodily autonomy”.