The Scottish Parliament is in recess from 28 June to 31 August. We will respond to petitions as soon as we can.
If your petition is seeking emergency action or an urgent policy change, we would advise you to contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly. Please be aware that the public petitions process is a thorough and often lengthy process and is not designed to respond to emergencies.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Team
Under consideration PE2126: Ensure abortion services are available up to 24 weeks across all parts of Scotland
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure abortion services are available up to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy across all NHS health boards in Scotland.
Background information
I previously called for this action as part of petition PE1969: Amend the law to fully decriminalise abortion in Scotland, and feel that this aspect was not responded to by the Scottish Government during the consideration of that petition.
Recent media reports suggest that there is only one doctor in Scotland who is trained to provide surgical abortions up to the legal limit, which is forcing vulnerable people to travel to England to end their pregnancies.
STV news have reported that “the number of women and girls travelling to England from Scotland for abortion care has been rising – going from 42 in 2021 to 65 in 2022 and 68 in 2023. By April this year, 26 women were already forced to make the journey”.
903 signatures
This petition is now under consideration
Click here for further information about the consideration of this petition.