As winter draws in, things are getting darker — particularly, north of the border. While Westminster is debating decriminalising abortion up to birth for women who self-administer an abortion, Scotland’s government has given its Abortion Law Review Expert Group a free hand to overhaul its law entirely.
The changes proposed in Scotland go far beyond the already radical proposed change to the law in England and Wales, currently progressing through the House of Lords, which would be limited to amending the law for women performing their own abortions.
The Scottish Expert Group, commissioned by Humza Yousaf and chaired by a former trustee of the UK’s largest abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), recommends abolishing Scotland’s 24-week abortion limit altogether. Its plan would allow abortion at any stage between 24 weeks and birth for broad reasons like “social circumstances,” and replace the need for two doctors’ approval with decisions made by healthcare professionals. “Social circumstances” is so broad that it could include abortions for anything, including a preference for a baby of the opposite sex, up to birth in Scotland.
One of the groups pushing for the change has received 98 per cent of known income from the Scottish Government
Remarkably, the report from the Expert Group openly says that Scotland’s new abortion law should not outlaw sex-selective abortions.
The report’s refusal to prohibit sex-selective abortion shows total moral indifference. Polling indicates 91 per cent of women oppose sex-selective abortion, and 70 per cent of women would support a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below. These figures show a gap in humanity between the so-called “progressives” and the public.
Of the thirteen members of the “Expert Group”, most have ties to the abortion provider BPAS as current or former board members or staff, or are pro-abortion campaigners, including BPAS’s current Head of Advocacy. “No legal upper limit” is the wish of BPAS’s former CEO, Ann Furedi. The Scottish Government, using public funds, has commissioned advice from organisations that could stand to benefit from removing their own criminal liability, broadening who can perform abortions, and reducing oversight, data collection, and scrutiny — all proposed by the review.
One of the groups pushing for this change, Engender, has received 98 per cent of the income outlined in its latest accounts from the Scottish Government and over £1.3 million from the Scottish Government in the past three years. In the latest year alone, they have received over half a million pounds from the Scottish taxpayer, representing a 250 per cent increase compared to the year ended 31 March 2016. Scottish taxpayers are now funding lobbying to change or remove laws that most of them wish to preserve.
Across the European Union, the average limit for abortion on demand or social grounds is twelve weeks. By 24 weeks of gestation, the current gestational limit for abortion, the baby has already been fully formed for 12 weeks. Scottish extremists try to convince themselves they are the compassionate ones by proposing a framework under which a viable child, capable of life outside the womb, could be terminated at full term for no medical reason, perhaps even for simply being a girl; however, to ordinary people, such policies are barbaric.
Even supporters of abortion up to 24 weeks should feel alarmed that cases of people like Stephen Doohan, who secretly administered abortion pills to a pregnant woman, would be harder to prosecute if abortion were fully decriminalised in Scotland. Decriminalisation benefits abortion providers, prevents justice for victims and harms the vulnerable.
Members of the Scottish Parliament owe their constituents a whole lot more than total deference to the abortion lobby they are already forced to fund. For a nation which controls what time of day you can buy alcohol, massively taxes sugary drinks and has banned disposable vapes to protect its citizens’ health, permitting abortions to take place right up to birth is bizarre and extremely sinister.
