Blog
‘It didn’t just happen’: Lessons from the history of Scottish abortion activism
In this guest blog Let’s Change the Act campaigner Dr Kristin Hay discusses the roots of the Abortion Rights movement in Scotland, and the lessons we must learn.
Dr Kristin Hay is a Historian, Activist and Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow.
Despite being heralded as a triumph of sexual liberation during the height of the Swinging Sixties, the Abortion Act of 1967 was and remains one of the most attacked pieces of legislation in British history. Throughout its near 60-year existence, numerous anti-abortion bills have been proposed which have sought to restrict and repeal the Act.
The fact that most of these attempts failed is due to the efforts of abortion activism: in the early 1970s, organisations such as the National Abortion Campaign (NAC) mobilised the widespread public support for reproductive rights and effectively defended the Abortion Act across mainland Britain. In 1980, a sister organisation – the Scottish Abortion Campaign (SAC) – emerged out of the NAC, focused on what they saw as Scotland’s distinctive abortion framework in law and in practice.
50+ orgs urge MSPs to decriminalise abortion
Earlier in May, Scotland elected a new parliament, and with a record-breaking number of brand-new MSPs in position, we’ve published a briefing for MSPs urging them to support our campaign for the full decriminalisation of abortion, and commit to introducing a modernised health-based system of abortion care in line with international health and human rights standards.
Scotland is the only part of the UK where women can still be criminalised for ending a pregnancy, and criminalisation creates abortion stigma and barriers to access.
For too long, women in Scotland have had to settle for a system of abortion law that does not put their needs, health and rights first. Abortion is routine healthcare, accessed by around one in three women in Scotland in their lifetime. Yet it is treated uniquely under the law without medical justification. We deserve a modern abortion framework that is in line with best-practice healthcare standards, upholds human rights for all those who need abortion and safeguards against harmful police investigations and prosecutions
We urge MSPs to support a new framework for abortion care in Scotland that is based on international health standards and is compliant with human rights.
Read the full briefing to MSPs here.
The Freedom to Choose
In this guest blog, VAWG professional, writer, activist, and Let’s Change the Act campaigner, Alice Jackson, explores abortion rights and coercive control.
Last week, the House of Lords voted to decriminalise abortion and pardon and expunge the records of women who had been criminalised for seeking abortions outside of the legal limits. A historic day, and a day hard and long fought for. There are now only three steps left until this bill becomes law, and the landscape of how abortion is delivered in England and Wales is changed, hopefully forever (though we can never be too careful).
I was proud to support, and work in a very minor capacity, on this campaign. My earliest professional roots were in reproductive and sexual health, and although I now work full-time in VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls), abortion and reproductive healthcare remains a key part of my focus. Not only is abortion a feminist issue, it’s a VAWG issue. A lot of the work I do is in Health; if you’re experiencing abuse, you’re most likely to seek support from, or disclose to a healthcare professional, and the NHS has more contact with people experiencing abuse than any other service; and yes, that includes police. Healthcare professionals are uniquely positioned to identify and respond to abuse, and they enjoy much greater public confidence and trust than the criminal justice system and other statutory services.
Guest Blog: “It can’t happen here”: The future of abortion rights in Scotland (and what we can do about it)
In this guest blog, actor, writer and campaigner Ally Ibach explores how anti-choice narratives became entrenched in the USA, and why Scotland needs modern abortion law that works for women in the face of rising threats to reproductive rights.
Long before Roe v. Wade (1973), abortion was not nearly as outwardly contentious or topical an issue in public American media.
After all, American Republicans have historically identified themselves as the party of free will in a free-market capitalistic structure; if you want to do something, you should be able to, without the government peering over your shoulder. This argument has served for years in defence of lowering taxes regardless of income, defending gun ownership, and many more classic conservative American stances.
Standing up against abortion disinformation
Following the recent publication of the Scottish Government’s Abortion Law Review report, we’ve published a briefing for MSPs in support of the report’s recommendations and calling for the full decriminalisation of abortion, alongside a modernised health-based system of abortion care in line with international health and human rights standards.
Since the release of the report, there has been a concerted campaign to publicly distort its recommendations. We’re calling on MSPs to stand up against these kinds of tactics.
This is critical for two reasons:
- Scotland’s women deserve the highest standard of abortion healthcare, and
- Abortion policy development, like all policy development, should be shaped using the highest level of evidence and expertise, not politicised scaremongering.
Read our full briefing to MSPs here.
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