A TEACHER who has launched a petition to decriminalise abortion in Scotland said a “chilling” surge in harassment outside clinics made her terrified about women’s rights to termination.
Gemma Clark, 39, has had her petition approved by the Scottish Parliament with people invited to share their views over the next month.
Abortion currently remains technically illegal under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 in England, Scotland and Wales.
The Abortion Act of 1967 ensured people could get a termination but only under certain circumstances.
The process requires the approval of two doctors and any termination beyond 24 weeks of a pregnancy is considered to be illegal and women can be prosecuted.
But Clark, from Renfrewshire, said she feels not many people are aware an unconditional right to abortion is not enshrined in law.
Her petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to “amend the law fully to decriminalise abortion in Scotland” and make provisions to ensure abortion services are available up to the 24th week of pregnancy across all parts of Scotland.
It emerged earlier this year that not a single health board in Scotland offers services up to the 24th week, with many young women forced to travel across the English border to access abortion care.
Clark said she felt motivated to start the petition as she witnessed a rise in anti-abortion protests outside clinics like Sandyford in Glasgow and Chalmers in Edinburgh.
And she said the overturning of the Roe vs Wade in the US was a “wake-up call” when it comes to our rights.
She said: “I find it quite scary we don’t actually have these rights [to unconditional abortion] and a lot of people don’t realise that.
“Roe vs Wade has been such a wake-up call. It has shown how easily the Christian far right can get your rights removed.
“I think it was seeing the increase in clinic harassment in Scotland, I found that really chilling, and as a teacher I worry about the world young girls are growing up in.
“I think it’s just disgusting that young girls could be growing up in a country and receive less rights and be subjected to more harassment than I was at their age.
“I just find it really upsetting, it’s just a massive step backwards. We need to make sure we have our rights enshrined in law to make sure they cannot be taken away from us because we’ve seen how quickly it can happen.”
Roe vs Wade – which made abortion legal across the US – was overturned by the US Supreme Court in June, leaving states to make their own calls about whether to allow the practice or not.
Clark said she is keeping her fingers crossed people throw their weight behind the petition, as she feels in the time it’s taken to get it approved – after she submitted it in early July - the focus on abortion rights in the media may have lost momentum.
She added: “After Roe v Wade was overturned I feel like there was a lot of coverage on the issue and I feel like we’ve lost momentum.
“I’ve been lucky so far that some people with quite big followings have helped to share the petition, so I hope that can continue.”
Given her job as a teacher, Clark is also concerned by the way in which schoolchildren are sometimes being fed misinformation about abortion.
She is planning on taking a motion to the EIS teaching union – of which she is a member – to ask bosses to campaign for health-focussed and facts-focussed abortion education in schools.
Clark added: “I’m concerned about anti-abortion propaganda that is still allowed to spread in schools.”
A spokesperson for pro-choice campaign group Abortion Rights said: "The US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs Wade has made clear that access to abortion can never be taken for granted.
"While the majority of women and pregnant people in Scotland receive timely and appropriate reproductive healthcare via the NHS, abortion remains a common law offence in Scotland.
"Although Scotland has not seen any recent prosecutions for abortion, this is something that is sadly happening in the rest of the UK. Ultimately, we would welcome a move towards decriminalising abortion in Scotland and will be hosting a webinar on decriminalisation on October 6."
To share your views before October 19, click here.
