Okay, back to party manifestos.
Scottish Family Party (Content warning, lots of lurid and offensive stuff about abortion. It's good to know what a party stands for).
https://scottishfamily.org/our-policies/
'Valuing Life
ABORTION AND ASSISTED SUICIDE
Life is precious. All human life is precious, and the measure of a civilised society is how we treat the most vulnerable.
We value every human life in the womb and affirm his or her right to life. Currently in Scotland, more than one in four pregnancies end in abortion. Abortion as a means of birth control is morally unjustifiable.
Ultimately, we would like to see the law protect every human life by banning abortion in all cases except where the mother’s life is endangered.
Even in cases such as rape and incest, the new life is valuable. A child conceived in rape is of equal value to any other child, both before and after they are born. While rape is obviously a heinous crime and a traumatic ordeal for the victim, the evidence does not suggest that abortion alleviates the pain. Where the mother’s life is endangered by continuing a pregnancy, abortion can be justified as a difficult decision in tragic circumstances. However, while pro-abortion campaigners like to focus on these rare cases, our immediate focus is on the 98% of abortions for the more usual “social” reasons.
If parliamentary support could not be mustered for the abolition of abortion, intermediate steps could include reducing the current 24-week limit for abortions and preventing abortion on grounds of disability after 24 weeks. Almost all European countries already have much tighter restrictions. Also, those considering an abortion could be offered independent counselling that addresses concerns about motherhood, exploring support and solutions.
Until abortion is abolished, we would ensure that young people in school are presented with the facts about abortion and the possible emotional consequences when the subject is discussed in schools. No organisation which provides abortions should be entitled to charitable status. We would seek to involve fathers in the decision-making process. Our emphasis on commitment and responsibility in sexual relationships would help reduce demand for abortions.
We would boost support for women facing unwanted or unexpected pregnancy, helping them to establish a strong network of support and encouraging alternatives such as fostering or adoption. Funding pregnancy support services would be one way to do this. A campaign against charities with a pro-life philosophy offering such services is already underway and can be expected to gather momentum. We will defend such charities as we want to see women supported, babies saved from abortion, and freedom upheld.
“Buffer Zones” or “Safe Access Zones” in the vicinity of abortion clinics to outlaw protest, prayer or offers of help, no matter how passive, are unjustified. Rather than protecting women from “harassment”, they are actually an ideological attack on freedom of expression. Those who seek to save the lives of babies being led towards abortion are criminalised.
Those who currently don’t have a strong view about abortion might still agree that this important topic should be discussed openly as a party-political issue. Currently, no party in the Scottish Parliament is willing stand up to the pro-abortion consensus.
The full decriminalisation of abortion is expected to pass in the Scottish Parliament within the next year or two. The Scottish Government’s advisory group has recommended that sex-selective abortion be permitted, that women face no sanction for ending their own pregnancy by whatever means at any stage, and that the requirements for a late-term abortion be relaxed.
We urge voters to recognise the ethical gravity of the issue. The fact is that a vote for the Conservatives, Greens, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, Reform, Alba or any other party that is not explicitly pro-life amounts to an endorsement of the killing of unborn children. Even if an individual candidate is pro-life, a vote for a pro-abortion party is a vote for the killing of the unborn.
The ongoing slaying of unborn children on a massive scale is arguably the gravest evil in our nation. We give it the priority and weight it deserves.
Without abortion, births would exceed deaths in Scotland. The problem of impending rapid population decline could be alleviated by restricting abortion.
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People should be free to seek private counselling as they fulfil their life vision, including therapy intended to resist sexual desires or the adoption of a changed gender identity. Moves to prevent such support are ideologically driven and an attack on individual freedom. So, we oppose any law to ban so-called conversion therapy. A person wishing to move away from or subdue homosexual attraction should be free to seek assistance from someone who agrees with their goal. Similarly, a person wishing to move away from any unconventional gender identity should be free to seek support that accords with their personal philosophy. Any person should be free to share their opinion and advice on matters of sexuality and gender with anyone else, unless in a context where any communication of personal values would be inappropriate. We do not want to see parents and religious leaders, for example, convicted for explaining their views and urging and helping people to live in accordance with them.
Unifying Society
IDENTITY POLITICS
Prosperous and harmonious nations share a strong sense of unity and common identity. States comprising factions competing against each other are often beset with problems.
The political arena should not be dominated by special interest groups battling to gain favourable treatment from the state, each bearing its own set of purported grievances, with parties competing to curry favour with them.
Such identity politics leads to resentment among those observing the special treatment of other groups, a passive mentality among those in allegedly victimised groups, and a never-ending spiral of competing claims from special interest groups. Once the grievance arms race has begun, it is in the interests of each special group to seek out ever more evidence of injustice against them. This ‘evidence’ is usually in the form of statistical differences that show a special group seeming to do less well on some indicator. The complex array of factors involved is then overlooked, and the distinction is blamed on prejudice and discrimination. Where statistics show the allegedly oppressed group doing better, they are ignored.
Identity politicians target sex, sexuality, gender, nationality, race, religion, income and age groups, always arguing that a group is getting a raw deal somehow.
In the same way that Marxists divide the population into economic oppressors and the oppressed, those fuelling identity politics seek to divide society into the oppressors and the oppressed on other grounds, breaking down allegiance to family and nation by diverting loyalty to identity groups instead, each feeling an aggrieved sense of victimhood and looking to government intervention to resolve these problems of “inequality.”
None of this is to say that genuine discrimination does not exist: it should be tackled as necessary, but not every statistical distinction shows an injustice.
We do not support Hate Crime legislation. Criminal activity should be punished according to its seriousness, not its motivation. All should be equally protected by the law. Anyone considering assaulting a person, for example, should fear the law equally, regardless of their motivation and intended victim. The proposed misogyny offense will create a crime of sexist behaviour towards a woman by a man, but equivalent behaviour by a woman towards a man would not be a crime. This is plainly unjust and reflects the use of legislation to placate favoured campaigners.
The 2010 Equality Act mandates “positive action,” stating that a candidate can be selected for a job because of their race, sex etc in order to meet statistical targets. This is unjust and discriminatory and should be repealed.
The Equality Act also makes harassment based on protected characteristics an offence. This is unnecessary. The law should apply equally to all. This provision actually makes some employers reluctant to employ applicants with certain “protected characteristics,” fearing that they will use their special protection to raise complaints and manipulate.
GENDER EQUALITY
Feminists in the past fought some grave injustices in the UK, as they do in many other countries today. However, much contemporary ‘gender equality’ campaigning in Scotland is misguided.
Men and women, on average, tend to have different priorities and interests. This diversity is positive and creative, not a problem to eliminate. We do not want to squeeze the sexes into uniformity, but to support men and women as they fulfil their own vision for their own lives.
Gender imbalances in many areas of study and lines of work are not a problem to solve, but a natural manifestation of men and women freely following their own inclinations and ambitions.
Compared to women, men tend to work longer hours, are more willing to sacrifice job security for career advancement, do more dangerous jobs, and take fewer career breaks. Women often want to devote themselves more to family life. The “gender pay gap” is by and large a reflection of the natural differences between men and women, and no government action is required to address it.
We do not support gender quotas in business, education or politics and would seek to repeal legislation that already discriminates in this way.
So-called “equal pay” claims, where women claim to have been underpaid for doing DIFFERENT work than men, are unjust. Councils should not have to spend their limited resources following these unjust claims. Similarly, businesses should be secure from such opportunistic attacks.
We would end taxpayer funding for campaigning groups such as Engender, Close the Gap and Equate.
PROSTITUTION
Prostitution harms prostitutes, clients and their families, leads to coercion to meet demand and trivialises sex, eroding the proper respect with which sexual intimacy should be regarded. The links between prostitution, organised crime, commercial sexual exploitation and the human trafficking industry are undeniable and must be properly tackled.
Buying sex should be criminalised. This deterrence would decrease the demand for sexual services and therefore reduce the number of people abused or damaged through prostitution. It would also protect potential clients from the harm to their own wellbeing and that of their family that can result from the use of prostitutes. Some prostitutes enter into this work through their own uncoerced choice and freely choose to continue in it, however, many others are forced into it through human trafficking, debt and drug addiction. This is a great social evil that needs to be addressed by legislation. It is illogical to make it illegal to buy something that is legal to sell, so selling sex should also be criminalised. While punishments might be appropriate in some cases, support to help people recover and move on from prostitution would be available.
PORNOGRAPHY
Pornography undermines the wellbeing of our society. We support strict schemes to prevent children from accessing online pornography. Fact-based education and public information campaigns are needed to highlight the dangers of addiction, detriment to existing relationships, undermining of future relationships, guilt, and progression to more extreme and perverted forms, including child porn.
State-owned Channel 4 should refrain from producing semi-pornographic content.
It beggars belief that the Scottish Government presents pornography as a valid, normal and natural option for children through sex education in schools. We would stop this evil.
Other political parties claim to want to address violence against women and girls but refuse to tackle a key driver: pornography. The association between pornography and sexual crime means that vigorous measures to eliminate illegal extreme and violent pornography are necessary. We would also explore measures to restrict and reduce the dissemination of all pornography.
Counselling and support groups for those struggling with pornography could help individuals progress positively and also protect marriages and other relationships.
TRANSGENDERISM
We oppose the Gender Recognition Reform Act. Officially changing sex/gender should not be possible merely at the request of an individual.
Even the current system of recognising gender change undermines the right of women to same-sex spaces, makes a mockery of women’s sport, and communicates a harmful understanding of sex and gender.
So, we propose that there should be no provision to change gender legally – we would repeal the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.
The only exception to this should be for intersex people, though we would allow those who have already changed gender to remain in their new legal gender.
Those experiencing gender identity issues should be offered psychological help to overcome the problem and align their feelings with their biological sex. Transgender “treatments”, pharmaceutical or surgical, should not be available from the NHS. Private clinics could provide such services to adults when the patient is fully aware of the likely long-term outcomes. Even private companies should not be allowed to perform any procedures on or prescribe any drugs relating to gender reassignment to under-21s.
The philosophy of gender fluidity is dangerous to young people, leading to confusion and unhelpful experimentation. Indoctrination into the fashionable philosophy of gender is not appropriate and will lead more children down a difficult road that could seriously undermine their well-being for the rest of their lives.
We would prevent schools from presenting the message that gender change is normal, natural and healthy – something to be celebrated. Staff and pupils should never be expected to display or state their pronouns. Schools should not facilitate gender changes for children, including not using new pronouns or names.
The current appalling practice of allowing children to change name and gender at school without parents being informed must stop.
Pupils experiencing gender dysphoria should be supported to seek alignment between their gender identity and their sex.'