SNP members voted on Sunday to enshrine abortion as a guaranteed right in the constitution of an independent Scotland.
The motion was passed at the SNP conference in Edinburgh after it was proposed by the party branch members.
The motion stated that the SNP believes that “access to safe, legal abortion is a fundamental aspect of healthcare and bodily autonomy… [and] should be a guaranteed and protected right within the highest legal framework of our nation.
“[This] Conference resolves that the SNP would call for the right to abortion to be enshrined in the future constitution of an independent Scotland.”
The wording also referenced “recent developments in the United States, where the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade”, as well as France’s “proactive step” of “enshrining the right to abortion in its constitution”.
SNP Councillor Math Campbell-Sturgess, posting on X (formerly Twitter), lauded the motion: “Proud that @theSNP has committed today that in an independent Scotland, abortion will be a right guaranteed in our constitution. We must never go back. We’re not going back.”
However, not all people on X welcomed the vote. “Definitely not a good move for the SNP”, one user said. A woman named Denise also slammed the motion as “another virtue signal for a problem that doesn’t exist”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “The SNP has become Scotland’s party of abortion, sacrificing the wellbeing of unborn children and their mothers on the altar of abortion ideology, which the SNP has sought to advance by any means possible in recent years.
“This latest and most decisive step is especially obscene, claiming the right to kill an unborn child that, according to the SNP, has no human rights at all, a vicious up-ending of the true meaning of rights and justice.
“Such revelling in abortion ought to disturb all Scots. The SNP, which already has a terrible track record of protecting women’s rights, has exposed itself even further because of this vote, which is the ultimate betrayal.”
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