The SNP has 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. In the future, this could be brought forward by an SNP Government.
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”.
‘Deeply disturbing’
Right to Life UK spokeswoman Catherine Robinson warned: “This is a radical and inhumane proposal that would likely lead to the lives of many more babies being lost to abortion in Scotland”.
“The constitution of a country acts as its foundational document, defining, among other things, the country’s basic principles of government and law. It is deeply disturbing that this SNP resolution proposes to make ending the lives of its unborn citizens one of those foundational principles”.
In Great Britain, abortion is currently permitted for most reasons up to 24 weeks, but up to birth if the unborn child is deemed to have a disability.
Censorship zones
Abortion activists who campaigned to criminalise pro-life witness outside abortion centres are also aiming to further liberalise Scotland’s abortion law.
Writing in The Herald earlier this year, Lucy Grieve, co-founder of Back Off Scotland, boasted that Scotland “won a historic victory” after Holyrood passed the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act into law in June.
Under the legislation, people risk an unlimited fine for handing out pro-life literature within 200m of a centre, speaking to anyone about abortion, or holding a silent ‘prayer vigil’.
Grieve said the activists’ “next priority” is campaigning to expand Scotland’s abortion services, and that they are “looking forward to working with the Scottish Government over the coming months to look at ways in which we can reform Scotland’s archaic abortion law”.
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