The SNP has provided more than £1.3 million of taxpayers’ money to an advocacy group pushing for an extreme abortion up to birth law, including sex-selective abortion, in Scotland.
The group, Engender, which is running the campaign to make abortion legal up to birth in Scotland, and, in a recently released report, in which Engender formed part of the panel that produced the report, recommends there should be no explicit prohibition on sex-selective abortion, which usually involves aborting baby girls because they are girls.
However, The Telegraph has revealed that Engender has received £1,366,833 in funding from the Scottish taxpayers since 2021.
Their financial records reveal that for the year 2034-24, 99% of their funding came from the taxpayer, via the Scottish Government.
Their funding from the Scottish Government increased by over 250% from £157,741 for the year ended 31 March 2016 to £561,061 for the year ended 31 March 2024.
Conservative MSP, Stephen Kerr, said “Taxpayers will not be happy to learn that their money is being used to push extreme policies”.
“This is yet another example of the SNP Government using taxpayer cash to bankroll groups that push an extreme ideological agenda. Common sense says we stop this funding of charities to push extreme policies. Taxpayers’ money should be spent on the priorities of the people of Scotland, not on advancing divisive causes that most Scots would find deeply concerning”.
Engender is one of the groups involved with a report commissioned by the Scottish Government and undertaken by the Abortion Law Review Expert Group, which was chaired by a former trustee of the UK’s largest abortion provider. The group consisted of 13 individuals, the majority of whom have either been on the board or worked for the UK’s largest abortion provider, BPAS, or have a history of pro-abortion campaigning, including BPAS’ current Head of Advocacy.
Extreme abortion up to birth and sex-selective abortion proposals
The report recommends that there be no specified grounds for abortion up to 24 weeks, making abortion lawful for any reason, which means that sex-selective abortions would be made legal – the report specifically suggests “that no specific reference is made to sex-selective abortion within any updated abortion legislation” – preventing provisions being added to legislation to prevent sex-selective abortion.
It also recommends: removing the important safeguard of two doctors signing off on abortion; that the Scottish Government creates a duty to provide abortion services – or a ‘right to abortion’; that there should be no certification requirements at any gestation; that any healthcare professional could perform an abortion at any gestation; and that healthcare professionals who conscientiously object to abortion would have a duty to refer.
The proposed changes go far beyond the already extreme current proposals in England and Wales, which would only amend the law for women performing their own abortions.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “The Scottish Government should be ashamed, and Scottish taxpayers should be furious about this gross misuse of their money. The Scottish Government are essentially spending other people’s money on a lobby group to lobby themselves to push an extreme abortion agenda, which includes abortion up to birth and sex-selective abortion”.
“If lobbyists want to push this extreme and vile law change, they should not be doing so with taxpayers’ money, and the Scottish Government should know better than to provide it”.
