Scotland’s Catholic bishops have urged politicians to reject what they called an “extreme abortion law” after a leaked Scottish National Party conference motion proposal would allow abortions up to birth for any reason, including sex selection.
The leaked draft agenda for the SNP’s October conference includes a motion calling for Scottish law to be changed to allow abortions for any reason at any time. The motion says abortion should be “rooted in human rights and equality of access, not criminal law” while ignoring the human rights of humans before birth.
Under current law, abortion in Scotland is permitted up to 24 weeks and after that only in exceptional medical circumstances. Pro-life groups warn that removing abortion from the criminal law would also remove that 24-week ceiling and allow killing viable babies in abortions.
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Anthony Horan, director of the Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office, said in a Sept. 8 statement issued on behalf of the bishops that the revelation was “deeply troubling.”
“Human life possesses inherent dignity and worth from conception until natural death, and any proposal that would further weaken safeguards for unborn children, including abortion up to the point of birth and sex-selective abortion, raises profound moral and ethical concerns,” Horan said.
He urged the SNP, other parties and members of the Scottish Parliament to “uphold both compassion for women facing difficult pregnancies and protection for the most vulnerable members of our human family.”
“Rather than expanding access to abortion, Scotland should focus on providing practical support to mothers, children and families, ensuring that no woman feels alone or without alternatives,” he said.
Horan added that Scots need their leaders to concentrate on the cost of living, housing, local health services, palliative care, and peace. “We do not need an extreme abortion law. Scotland deserves better,” he said.
The draft document, obtained by The National, is not a finalized list of items that will be debated when the SNP meets in October. The motion asks members 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.” If adopted as party policy, the measure “can be taken forward in government or championed at Westminster.”
The push follows a 2025 review of Scotland’s abortion laws commissioned by then-First Minister Humza Yousaf. That review recommended scrapping the 24-week time limit and allowing abortions on social grounds, including for sex-selective purposes, up to birth. If those recommendations became law, Scotland would have one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world, opponents say. The most common abortion time limit among European Union countries is 12 weeks.
In September 2024, SNP conference delegates already voted for a resolution calling for “the right to abortion” to be enshrined in a “future constitution of an independent Scotland.”
Pro-life organizations have pressed First Minister John Swinney to rule out any change that would permit abortion up to the point of birth.
“This draft conference motion represents a radical and deeply disturbing shift in the SNP’s direction,” said John Deighan, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. “While previous conference resolutions supported access up to the current 24-week legal limit, this new proposal attempts to hijack the party’s platform to push through extreme recommendations from an ideological ‘Expert Group’ that wants abortion completely decriminalised.”
“Removing abortion from the criminal law altogether means removing the 24-week legal ceiling,” Deighan said. “It would leave Scotland with one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world, allowing viable, late-term unborn babies to be aborted right up to birth.” He said Swinney should show “true leadership” and “clearly rule out” any such measure.
Catherine Robinson of Right To Life UK said it was “disheartening” that the SNP was considering making “such an extreme position on abortion party policy.”
“If adopted, this policy could become law and lead to the lives of many more women being endangered because of the risks involved with self-administered late-term abortions and also tragically lead to an increased number of viable babies’ lives being ended well beyond the 24-week abortion time limit and beyond the point at which they would be able to survive outside the womb,” she said. “Pressure must now be put on the SNP to drastically change their course ahead of their Party Conference in October.”
Public Health Scotland figures show 18,783 abortions killing babies in Scotland in 2025, the highest number on record and a 54.78% increase from 12,135 in 2016. The figures also recorded 277 disability-selective abortions in 2025. SPUC said official figures suggest abortion is now the leading cause of death in Scotland.
A UK-wide Savanta ComRes poll found that 89% of the general population and 91% of women support outlawing sex-selective abortion, and that only 1% of women support introducing abortion up to birth.
