Abortion Is Healthcare – So Why Is It Still A Crime In Scotland?

By Amanda Amaeshi

One of the first issues that drew me into feminist activism as a teenager was bodily autonomy and reproductive rights.

To me, the principle is simple: people should be free to make decisions about their own bodies – decisions that are deeply personal and should not be dictated by strangers or the state. Bodily autonomy is a fundamental principle of human rights.

I remember the shock and fear I felt seeing Roe v Wade being overturned in the United States in 2022. Like many people, I watched rights that had seemed settled suddenly become uncertain. This happened just days after my high school leaving ceremony and prom. For me and many of my peers, reproductive rights shape the reality of how we navigate the world as young women.

What surprised me even more, however, was later learning that abortion remains criminalised here in Scotland.

Under the current law in Scotland, women have no legal right to end a pregnancy. The legal framework for abortion in Scotland is a patchwork of laws that stem from as far back as the 17th century. In practice, abortion is governed primarily by the Abortion Act 1967, which dictates how, where, and when abortion care can be accessed – including, for example, the requirement that two doctors authorise the procedure. Outwith the tightly controlled conditions of the Act, abortion can be criminalised in Scotland.

I studied English law at university, and during that experience, classmates often described Scotland as being ahead of the curve on human rights. I always maintained that, while there is some truth in that, there is also a danger in comparing ourselves only with places we perceive to be doing worse. “At least we’re better than somewhere else” can quickly become an excuse for complacency. Worse still, in this particular context, such sentiments can obscure the reality: when it comes to abortion law, Scotland is the part of the UK falling behind. Northern Ireland decriminalised abortion in 2019. In 2025, reforms in England and Wales removed the threat of criminal prosecution for women ending their own pregnancies. Control over abortion law was devolved to the Scottish Parliament in 2016, yet Scotland is now the only part of the UK where women remain vulnerable to criminalisation.

Criminalisation over a matter of healthcare.

The Scottish Government’s independent review of abortion law concluded that abortion services should be treated first and foremost as a healthcare matter. The expert group found that the current legal framework is outdated and recommended removing abortion from the criminal justice system and replacing the existing system with a modern healthcare-based framework.

Doing so would reflect the reality of modern healthcare practice. At the time the Abortion Act was passed, abortions were performed surgically in hospitals and healthcare operated through a far more paternalistic model. Today, the overwhelming majority of abortions in Scotland are early medical abortions. Many take place at home. Healthcare decisions across medicine are increasingly centred on informed consent and patient autonomy – yet abortion continues to be treated differently. There are no other medical conditions for which criminal law dictates exactly who may provide treatment, where treatment may occur, and what authorisations must first be obtained. In every other area of healthcare, regulation is shaped by clinical evidence, professional standards, and evolving best practice. Yet abortion continues to be treated as a legal exception despite there being no medical justification for doing so.

That exceptionalism has consequences. The current framework creates unnecessary complexity within an NHS already under significant pressure, leading to delays in accessing care, particularly in rural communities where services may be more limited and harder to access. It places decision-making power in the hands of two doctors who must authorise an abortion, rather than recognising access to abortion care as a matter of personal autonomy and healthcare. It reinforces the idea that abortion is something fundamentally different from other forms of healthcare, despite being one of the safest and most routinely accessed healthcare procedures, used by around one in three women in Scotland during their lifetime.

Scotland’s abortion law has failed to keep pace with medical practice, public attitudes, and international human rights standards. The United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and other international bodies have repeatedly recognised access to safe, legal, and timely abortion as a human rights issue. Yet Scotland continues to regulate abortion through a legal framework that retains the possibility of criminal sanction.

The law should be coherent. It should be proportionate. It should respect fundamental human rights. When legal frameworks become detached from the realities they govern, lawyers have an important role to play in advocating for change.

Abortion is healthcare – and so it should be treated as healthcare.

That is why I support efforts to modernise abortion law in Scotland. And it is why I would encourage lawyers, law students, and legal professionals to join Lawyers for Let’s Change the Act and support a legal framework that reflects contemporary healthcare practices, human rights standards, and the fundamental right to bodily autonomy.

It’s beyond time for Scotland’s abortion law to catch up with the reality of modern healthcare and the rights of those it exists to serve.

Come along to our next online session and find out how you can get involved in the campaign to modernise abortion law in Scotland:

Lawyers for Let’s Change the Act Online Meeting
🗓️ Tuesday, 28th July – 12:00-13:00
✍️ Register here to join us