I am usually a lurker here, but after searching for discussion on this I could not find it so decided to start my own thread. Please do direct me if I have overlooked other threads!
I have spent today feeling genuinely shaken after reading the following article by Lucy Grieve in the Scotsman (published 5 June this year) - www.scotsman.com/health/the-scottish-government-is-failing-women-when-it-comes-to-abortion-lucy-grieve-3720095
I have found other threads talking about Lucy’s work with Back Off regarding abortion clinic buffer zones.
In it, she highlights the lack of abortion services in Scotland up to 24 weeks. She starts: “Since 2019, 170 Scottish women – including children under the age of 16 – have been sent across the border into England to have an abortion. This roughly equates to one Scottish woman every week that is having to make this journey to access healthcare that is legal in Scotland”…
“As it stands there is no health board in Scotland that provides abortion care up to the longstanding legal limit of 24 weeks to the women in its area. In every part of Scotland, these women are being sent to England in order to access the care they so desperately need and are legally entitled to.”
Further covered in the Guardian this week: amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/22/abortion-hierarchy-uk-lack-of-services-scotland-northern-ireland-england-terminate-pregnancy - “In some health board areas she found the service stopped significantly short of this too. In Fife, for example, it is 15 weeks and five days.”
To put it bluntly… what the fuck?! Im quite ashamed I did not know this, and ashamed of our Scottish Government (not an unfamiliar feeling, I’ll admit). This feels like such a failure of women, especially when the SNP present themselves as so bloody morally superior in all circumstances, including feminism (apologies, I wanted to write this in a dispassionate way, but have failed).
I’ve been a donating to the ASN for years now, and am shocked at the lack of vital provision right on my doorstep.
I have contacted my MSP, but am at a bit of a loss what else to do. I guess I just wanted to share and hear other’s thoughts.