‘It didn’t just happen’: Lessons from the history of Scottish abortion activism

‘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.

The SAC not only defended the Act, but further sought to extend it. Campaigners highlighted the inequalities 

of abortion access in Scotland, and advocated for better abortion provision on the NHS. Crucially, they also fought to ‘establish the right in law for a woman to choose whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy’.

Ultimately, the SAC did not improve the law, and in the context of an increasingly conservative political climate, a meeting was held about the future of British abortion activism in 1982. In this meeting, the SAC highlighted the importance of the movement, arguing:

‘without the right to control her body, a woman cannot control her destiny…why abandon the original aims of the Campaign, when we have not won them?’

Nearly half a century later, those final words echo in my head. We, in Scotland, have not yet won the right to body autonomy. Abortion remains criminalised, and abortion access dependent on location and two doctors’ approval. The repeal of Roe vs Wade in America shows that what limited rights we do have can be lost in a moment, whilst the decriminalisation of abortion in England shows that positive change can be made.

We have the chance, now, to fulfil a 60-year ambition of ensuring that everyone in Scotland has the human right to body autonomy, equal to the rest of Britain. The SAC gave us the blueprint; it is our turn to work together, mobilise, and fight to change the law. 

Our thanks to the Scottish Abortion Campaign & Glasgow Women’s Library for sharing this image with us. A Scottish Abortion Campaign (SAC), campaigning badge from the 1980’s. 

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