Abortion Rights Scotland is member-led. We campaign for free, safe, legal and local abortion services, free from harassment, provided and delivered by the NHS in Scotland. There has been an activist group in Scotland for over 50 years. This brief report will provide a flavour of the various activities we have participated in or organised since the Scottish Abortion Rights AGM in Edinburgh in April 2023. 

 

Steering Group 

During 2022 volunteers came together to form a Steering Group to help manage the tasks associated with this growing campaign and we expanded its membership in 2023. 

All these volunteers are prepared to continue:

Co Chairs: Fiona Menzies & Ann Henderson 

Secretary & Treasurer: Annie Ogletree.

Plus Steering Group members: Jane Carnall, Marie Kereguelen, Nadia Malone, Sarah Hort, Jill Wood, and Audrey Brown (Media contact)

National Abortion Rights EC reps: Anne Dean and Lynsey Mitchell 

The Steering Group organises and attends to the more practical day-to-day virtual business meeting monthly every third Wednesday. 

 

All Members Meetings

Monthly virtual meetings on Zoom, open to all Abortion Rights members and reps from our affiliated organisations in Scotland, have taken place on the first Wednesday of each month to hear from varied invited speakers to encourage political, campaign and strategy discussions.

Speakers this past year have included: 

April- Alex Greenwich MP (NSW Australia) attended our 2023 AGM via video to inform us of the process he undertook in Australia’s most populous state to decriminalise abortion care. 

May - Dr Sinead Cook- update on the current progress of the provision of medical abortion in Scotland. 

June - Dr Audrey Brown- discussed the 2022 SMO annual report on Abortion Statistics. July - Marie Kerguelen spoke about decriminalisation and her PhD research in Malta. 

August - Dani Anderson on the work of the Abortion Support Network which provides a range of input to countries that currently do not support abortion or provide limited services such as Poland, Malta, Ireland. 

September - Pam Lowe on trends emerging from her research on anti abortion activism in the UK, including anti-abortion responses to safe access zone legislation passed recently (England and Wales), and responses to the recent prosecutions of women in England re abortion.

October – campaigning work, including preparing for STUC Women’s conference

November – updates on Scottish Parliament business, including on Safe Access Zones

February - Naomi from Alliance4Choice 

https://www.alliance4choice.com/ which organises in the North and south of Ireland spoke about the decriminalisation campaign in the north, and the impact of moving from a criminal framework to a healthcare framework. 

March - Carrie Purcell spoke about her research with the Open University, currently focusing on experiences of pain during medication abortion (throughout the UK). 

 

Campaigns 

Anniversary of the enactment of the 1967 Abortion Act -27th April 1968– our annual demonstration on Lothian Rd Edinburgh to counter the anti-choice ‘vigil’ on the opposite side of the road took place on Saturday 22nd April 2023, and in 2024 will take place on Saturday 27th April. 

Work continues on Safe Access Zones, ensuring service improvements post-COVID, and developing the discussion on moving to achieving decriminalisation in Scotland. 

Events at which we have been represented included the Edinburgh May Day 2023, the STUC Women’s Conference, the Humanists Scottish event on abortion rights in October 2023 and we organised a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament in June 2023, to add our voice to those who were angry about the criminal investigations and imprisonment of women in connection with abortions.

Both the STUC and the Scottish Labour Women’s organisation have taken our campaign materials, and the STUC recently encouraged all of its affiliated trade unions and local trade union branches to affiliate to Abortion Rights. 

 

Decriminalisation 

Abortion Rights Scotland welcomed the First Minister’s commitment to take this forward and is represented on the Scottish Government's working group on abortion decriminalisation. Alongside other non-profit and activist groups, ARS will be liaising with the expert group to inform the decriminalisation discussion and to make sure that women and pregnant people’s lived experiences of abortion in Scotland are heard. We have also been encouraging discussion on the best language to use, in the decriminalisation campaign, to ensure wide public understanding of any proposed changes.

We were invited to speak at, and participate in, a seminar in London on 20th March 2024, looking at abortion law reform. This was hosted by the Centre for Reproductive Rights, co-ordinated by Sally Sheldon and Sheelagh McGuiness University of Bristol, and brought together academics, practitioners in the NHS and in the third sector, and activists. International input from WHO; South Australia, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand.

AR Scotland has been attending Voice for Choice coalition meetings online.

Scottish Government Cross Party Group on Women’s Health. 

Abortion Rights Scotland is a member and attendee of the Scottish Government’s CPG on women’s health. ARS co-organised the first CPG meeting of 2024, on abortion decriminalisation. MSPs Monical Lennon and Carol Mochan attended. Parliamentary questions were developed with Carol Mochan’s team in parliament, enquiring about post-20 weeks abortion provision in Scotland, and progress on decriminalisation.  

 

Safe Access (Buffer) Zones

Abortion Rights Scotland made a submission to the Committee’s consultation on Safe Access Zones Bill (Health Social Care & Sport Committee). After further consideration in the committee, at Stage 1 of the parliamentary Bill process, the Report will be fully debated in the Scottish Parliament soon. 

 

Raising our profile

Abortion Rights Scotland now has our own website. We will be building up the resource materials available to everyone, on the website. Our Instagram account continues to engage well. Badges and postcards have been available at a range of events. We used our new ‘Abortion is Healthcare - Decriminalisation Now’ banner at the Parliament. 

 

Summary

This is an account of some of our work since April 2023. With abortion law clearly a devolved responsibility, the building up of a strong Abortion Rights Scotland campaign continues to be really important, and we look forward to recruiting more members, increasing affiliations, and speaking up in the year ahead.

 

Abortion Rights Scotland April 2024.