With the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross MSP, announcing that he would be stepping down following the General Election in which he failed in his bid to take Aberdeenshire North and Moray East for the Conservative Party, three members of the Scottish Conservative Party will be competing for the Party’s leadership.
Russell Findlay, Murdo Fraser and Meghan Gallacher have all put their names forward and members of the Scottish Conservatives will have the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate until 12 noon on 26 September before the results are revealed on Friday 27 September.
Where, though, do each of these candidates stand on abortion and assisted suicide?
Russell Findlay – MSP for West Scotland
Findlay voted in favour of the extreme Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill, which will make it illegal to offer assistance to women seeking an abortion within 200m of any facility that performs abortions, and could even fine people for displaying pro-life signs in their own homes. The Bill is set to come into force at the end of this month.
Regarding the proposed introduction of assisted suicide into Scotland, Findlay has said he is sympathetic to the arguments of those who are suffering at the end of their lives but is refusing to set out his position until the Bill has been subject to “the most rigorous scrutiny possible”.
Findlay has the backing of Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.
Murdo Fraser – MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife
Fraser was one of five Scottish Conservative MSPs who neither voted for, nor against, nor abstained in a vote to pass the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill.
According to the Daily Record, Fraser has serious concerns about the impact of the abortion buffer zone legislation on religious freedom.
Murdo Fraser has said that introducing assisted suicide would mean a return to “a darker time in the past when human life was not valued as it is today”.
When he was asked how he would feel about having a party leader who had a different view from his on assisted suicide, Fraser said “That’s fine. This is not a matter of party policy, it’s a matter of conscience. I’m entirely relaxed if a leader has a different view on it”.
Although MSPs have not yet had the opportunity to vote on the proposed Scottish assisted suicide Bill, in 2021 Fraser supported a motion in the Scottish Parliament opposing assisted suicide legislation.
Meghan Gallacher – MSP for Central Scotland
Gallacher voted in favour of the abortion buffer zone legislation, which will make it illegal to offer assistance to women seeking an abortion within 200m of any facility that performs abortions, and could even fine people for displaying pro-life signs in their own homes.
Earlier this year she said “This Bill in my opinion is about women and creating safe access to healthcare where they don’t feel intimidated or harassed, and I think that is a reasonable ask”.
On the issue of assisted suicide Gallacher has said she is “on the fence”. She is “supportive of it from the heart” following her personal experience with a family member, but she does have concerns about the legislation being proposed.
At a hustings event last month she said “There are serious concerns, in my view, about the Bill in its current form. We need to look at this in the round”.
“I’m not in the position right now where I’d be able to say yes or no because yes, I would be supportive of it from the heart because of what happened to a family member”.
“That is a personal situation that happened to me but I’m going to look at this pragmatically as well as a legislator”.
