The Catholic Church in Scotland has said it is “deeply disturbed” by the Scottish Green Party’s call for the complete decriminalisation of abortion.
The Greens have called upon the SNP government to move forward with the recommendations of the Scottish Abortion Law Reform Expert Group. The group recommends measures that critics say would effectively legalise abortion up to the point of birth.
Bishop John Keenan, President of the National Office for Marriage, Family and Life of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, has previously criticised the so-called expert group for excluding pro-life voices and for adopting a principle of “non-regression” from the outset - in short meaning that recommendations would only go in one direction.
Responding to the Greens' demand, Bishop Keenan said, the Church “is deeply concerned by renewed calls to decriminalise abortion in Scotland and to remove existing legal safeguards governing the ending of unborn human life".
"These proposals would permit abortion up to birth for any reason, including sex-selective abortion," he said.
He added, “A just and compassionate society should recognise and protect the lives of both mother and child, especially when either is vulnerable.”
The bishop took issue with the Green view that abortion should be treated on a par with any other healthcare, saying such a view “simply does not match the brutal reality of abortion, which is the deliberate ending of an innocent, defenceless human life”.
In Scotland the views of the Greens potentially matter. While in England the Greens are a fringe party, in Scotland, due to the proportional representation system, the party as occasionally got its hands on the levers of power. Between 2021 and 2024 the Greens entered a power-sharing and cooperation agreement with the SNP, which had failed to win an outright majority.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has also spoken against the Green proposals, calling them “disastrous and destructive”.
