Election 2026: Our analysis of the Scottish Labour manifesto

April 13, 2026

In the run up to the Holyrood election, we’re analysing what’s in each of the main party manifestos for humanists. We’re also asking candidates to adopt policies that make Scotland a more rational, socially just and compassionate country. Second out the gate is Scottish Labour. Their 2026 manifesto contains pledges on reproductive freedom, conversion practices, end-of-life care, and more.

You can also read our analysis of the Conservative, Green, SNP, and Liberal Democrat manifestos.

Abortion Rights

Graphic showing a woman sitting at a doctor's table with a picture of a pregnant body on a screen.

The manifesto commits to “protect women’s reproductive rights, ensuring that they are able to access the full range of reproductive services, no matter where they live.”

Currently, no health board in Scotland provides abortion care up to the legal limit of 24 weeks. In practice, this means that many patients are forced to travel to England to receive abortion care. Humanist Society Scotland previously backed a petition calling out the impact of this national scandal on women and pregnant people. If elected, we hope this general pledge from Scottish Labour results in much-needed reform to post-20 week abortion care.

Disappointingly, the manifesto contains no commitment to modernise Scotland’s outdated abortion law. Nor have Scottish Labour pledged to follow UK Labour and fully decriminalise abortion.

Right now, women and pregnant people in Scotland have no legal right to end a pregnancy. The law requires two doctors to sign off on an abortion request, with patients compelled to justify a deeply personal decision. Criminalising abortion also means that prosecutions and police investigations still take place today.

Humanist Society Scotland believes the status quo is failing vulnerable women, perpetuates stigma, and undermines the status of abortion as routine healthcare. This is why we’ve joined over 35 organisations and 400 individuals calling for the full decriminalisation of abortion and an abortion law fit for the 21st century.

LGBT+ Rights

Humanist Society Scotland is pleased to see a commitment to legislation ending conversion practices against LGBTQ+ people. The manifesto says “we will work to deliver a conversion practices ban on a four nation basis to prevent the creation of any possible loopholes across the UK and protect LGBT+ people from harmful conversion practices.”

We are clear that Scotland needs a comprehensive, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices. That means no loopholes that exempt faith groups or those who reject trans identities.

Conversion practices are harmful, coercive behaviours that attempt to change or suppress a person’s sexuality or gender identity. Such acts are based on the false and dangerous notion that being LGBT+ is sinful, shameful or wrong and needs to be “cured”. Conversion practices are not only widely discredited as illegitimate and ineffective, but also cause significant and lasting harm to victims.

We also have significant concerns about Labour’s pledge to deliver “single sex-spaces on the basis of biological sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life”. The wording suggests a blanket approach to treating trans people in line with the sex recorded on their birth certificate. If implemented, trans people would face further exclusion, discrimination and stigmatisation in an already deeply hostile climate.

In line with the Scottish LGBTQ+ manifesto, we call on the next Scottish Government to adopt the most inclusive and human-rights compliant approach to trans peoples’ inclusion in public life. As humanists, we will always fight to uphold the dignity, autonomy, and wellbeing of all individuals.

End of life choice

The manifesto says “too many people are reaching the end of life without the support they need. Compassionate and well planned palliative services give patients comfort and care when they are terminally ill.”

As an organisation that campaigns for greater end-of-life choice, including the right of terminally ill adults to choose an assisted death, we recognise the importance of improved access to hospice and palliative care. We therefore welcome the commitments to improve palliative care training for health and social care staff. Labour also pledges to “improve clinical pathways and minimum standards of care for those at the end of life.”

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