Graphic showing protestors holding up placards reading "Decriminalise Abortion", "Safe Access", and "Abortion is Healthcare".

We sign open letter protesting “disgraceful” abortion investigations guidelines

June 30, 2025

Reproductive Rights

We are amongst 29 civil society and health organisations calling on Police Scotland to publicly reject new guidelines that could subject women to invasive criminal investigations.

Humanist Society Scotland is amongst the 29 signatories to a letter sent by Engender to Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell. The letter condemns updated guidance from the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) on “child death investigation”, which it describes as “disgraceful” and “misogynistic by design”.

What’s in the new guidelines?

The new guidelines from the NPCC include scope for highly invasive investigation techniques. These include: searching women and pregnant people’s homes and treating them as crime scenes; confiscating digital devices and reviewing personal data; accessing medical records and reproductive tracking apps; and subjecting families to criminal investigation during bereavement.

Graphic showing a woman and doctor at a desk examining a picture of a pregnancy.

Signatories call on Police Scotland to publicly clarify that the regulations outlined in the NPCC guidelines will not be taken up it Scotland. It also calls on Police Scotland to develop new guidance allied with World Health Organisation guidelines on abortion investigation.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has described the guidance as “shocking”. Clinicians have warned it will create a “climate of fear” among healthcare staff. The letter, meanwhile, warns that marginalised communities – including those in poverty, women of colour, disabled women, migrants, young women, LGBT+ people, and those in rural areas – would be disproportionately impacted by such investigations.

The new NPCC guidance, released last month, comes after a dramatic upswing in abortion related investigation and prosecution of women in England and Wales. Last week the UK Parliament moved to halt criminal sanctions against women for terminating their own pregnancies via a successful amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.

What are we calling for?

We and the other signatories call on Police Scotland to publicly clarify that the NPCC guidelines will not be taken up it Scotland. We also call on Police Scotland to develop new guidance allied with World Health Organisation guidelines on abortion investigation.

Humanist Society Scotland has long campaigned on reproductive rights. This includes the current call to decriminalise abortion in Scotland. We call on Police Scotland to do the right thing and reject the NPCC guidance.

Our CEO Fraser Sutherland said:

“We are proud to sign this letter and we support its terms entirely. The upsurge in abortion-related criminal investigations in England and Wales, coupled with the rise of anti-choice rhetoric across Europe and North America, makes this a particularly egregious time to issue such misogynistic and intrusive guidance. We join the letter’s signatories in calling on Police Scotland in the strongest possible terms to reject the NPCC directives.”

Read open letter to Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell