Former Conservative MP Miriam Cates has warned the Scotland is moving “towards abortion extremism”, following a November report by the Scottish government’s Abortion Law Reform Expert Group.
The group, which has been criticised for being stacked in favour of pro-abortion voices and for potential conflict of interest, effectively recommended allowing abortion up to the point of birth, removing the requirement that two doctors sign off on an abortion.
The report also had nothing to say about the issue of sex-selective abortion and effectively called for abortion to become a right.
Cates, writing for The Critic, noted that the “Expert Group” didn’t have a single pro-life member and in fact included the head of advocacy for BPAS, Britain’s largest abortion provider.
“There is a clear conflict of interest here. Abortion providers, who stand to benefit from many of the proposals the report suggests, including largely removing them from criminal liability, diluting reporting requirements and scrutiny … were given free rein to lobby for a law to suit their purposes," she said.
She further argued that the Scottish Government has developed the habit of embracing a controversial decision in Westminster - such as the vote in favour of assisted suicide, which occurred in the same week as a Westminster vote to allow abortion up to the point of birth – and taking it a step further.
“Shortly after MPs voted for assisted suicide to be introduced in the House of Commons, MSPs voted at their equivalent of Second Reading for an even more extreme assisted suicide law, which does not include the requirement of a six-month prognosis in its eligibility criteria for terminally ill people, in Scotland," she said.
Similarly, Scotland’s version of the Westminster decision to allow women to abort their children up to the point of birth, also allows medical professionals to perform abortions at full term - something she said was a "ghastly proposal that will endanger women, as well as lead to the abortions of viable babies".
BPAS has publicly stated that they wish the Scottish proposals to also become law in England and Wales.
Cates warned, “When Peers vote on the Westminster abortion up to birth amendment in the House of Lords in the new year, they can therefore now do so with their eyes open.
"The abortion lobby wants to bring the same extreme proposals they are recommending for Scotland to Westminster too: sex-selective abortion, up to birth, at the hands of healthcare professionals.
"Far from being progressive, this is barbaric and backwards, and should be rejected on both sides of the border.”
