Scotland is on the road to becoming the most dangerous place in the world for unborn babies. A leaked copy of the Scottish National Party’s conference draft agenda has revealed that it includes a motion calling for a change in the law so it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, and at any point up to and during birth.
According to information obtained by The National, the leaked document – which is not a finalised list of what will be debated at the SNP conference in October – includes a motion that calls for a drastic change in the law in what they say would make the act of a woman performing her own abortion “rooted in human rights and equality of access, not criminal law”.
The motion asks members of the Party to note “with concern that at present, Scotland is the only part of the UK” that has not “remove[d] legal penalties from women under the 1967 Abortion Act”. The removal of these legal penalties would mean it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, and at any point up to and during birth.
If the motion is adopted at the Party conference and were to become SNP policy, it “can be taken forward in government or championed at Westminster”.
If the motion were adopted, became party policy and was then taken forward by an MSP, it could lead to Scotland adopting an extreme abortion law that would likely lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing dangerous late-term abortions at home.
Polling shows the public opposes abortion up to birth and legalising sex-selective abortion. 89% of the general population and 91% of women agree that gender-selective abortion should be explicitly banned by the law – and only 1% of women support introducing abortion up to birth.
Review calls for extreme changes to Scottish abortion law
These proposals follow a review of abortion law in Scotland in 2025, commissioned by Humza Yousaf when he was Scottish First Minister, which recommended that Scotland scrap the 24-week abortion time limit and allow abortions on social grounds, including for sex-selective purposes, right up to birth.