(LifeSiteNews) — Scottish parliamentarians are pushing for Scotland to follow England and Wales by completely decriminalizing abortion up to birth.
Scottish Labour Party MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) Katrina Murray called the country’s abortion law “outdated” and stressed that it “must change.” Her party colleagues Joani Reid and Lilian Jones supported her proposal.
“Scotland now stands as the only nation in the U.K. that has not moved to remove abortion from the criminal law,” Murray said. “That must change.”
“[A]ll abortions still require two doctors’ signatures, and women must meet specific legal criteria to qualify for an abortion,” she lamented.
READ: UK votes to decriminalize abortion
Murray noted that “simply not wanting to be pregnant … is not a valid reason to have an abortion” under the current legal framework.
The Scottish government has appointed a committee to review the abortion law, which is expected to publish its recommendation on whether abortion should be legalized later this summer.
Currently, abortion in Scotland is permitted within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, although it is not fully decriminalized. Women officially need to give a reason for procuring an abortion, which includes purported threats to their mental health as well as the mental health of existing children. These vague provisions are typical of abortion laws and make it so that most women can easily have an abortion in practice. In 2024, more than 18,000 abortions were carried out in Scotland.
Last month, U.K. MPs voted to completely decriminalize abortion in England and Wales, allowing women to kill their unborn child during any stage of pregnancy for any reason. Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill on abortion was passed in the British Parliament by 379 to 137 votes.
Liberalizing Great Britain’s abortion laws is out of step with majority opinion in the U.K., according to multiple polls. LifeSiteNews recently covered an Ipsos survey finding that only 34 percent want abortion legal in “all” cases and just under half of young men (46 percent) want it legal in “all” or “most” cases.
Moreover, British pro-life advocacy group The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children highlights a Whitestone poll finding that 62 percent agree that “Having an illegal abortion should continue to be a criminal offence to protect both the unborn and vulnerable women who could be coerced into losing a baby they may have wanted, for example by an abusive partner.”
