Election 2026: Our analysis of the Scottish Green manifesto

April 14, 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. Today is the turn of the Scottish Greens. Their manifesto contains a raft of positive commitments, including an independent pupil opt out for school worship.

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

Education and Children’s Rights

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Humanist Society Scotland strongly supports the commitment to allow school pupils to independently opt out of religious observance (RO).

Newly passed legislation gives religious pupils an independent right to opt in to RO against their parents’ wishes. However, humanist pupils still have no reciprocal right to opt out. This approach embeds discrimination into law and is incompatible with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Greens say ‘we will press the Scottish Government to make good on its commitment to consult on and then introduce an independent right for a child to withdraw from Religious Observance in schools.’ This would mean all pupils are given a voice and a choice on religious observance, no matter their beliefs.

Abortion Rights

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

The manifesto says ‘the Scottish Greens believe access to abortion is a fundamental right. Abortion care is healthcare and should be treated like any other health procedure. That is why we want to end the antiquated “two doctor rule” and ensure that people do not have to give a reason for why they are seeking abortion care’.

Humanist Society Scotland welcomes the manifesto pledge to decriminalise abortion and modernise our outdated abortion law. Right now, women and pregnant people in Scotland have no legal right to end a pregnancy. Individuals are compelled to justify a deeply personal decision, and criminalisation means 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.

We also support the promise to ‘expand abortion services in Scotland so patients are not required to travel to England’. 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 hundreds of miles to receive abortion care. Humanist Society Scotland previously backed a petition calling out the impact of this national scandal on women and pregnant people.

LGBT+ Rights

Humanist Society Scotland is delighted to see a strong commitment to ending conversion practices against LGBTQ+ people. 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.

The manifesto promises to ‘introduce a comprehensive ban on conversion therapy covering all settings, such as religious, informal, community, family-based and therapeutic, with clear protections for affirming healthcare, and inclusive of trans, non-binary, and asexual identities. This ban will be backed by appropriate criminal and civil penalties, and a statutory right of survivors to support and advocacy’.

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.

The manifesto also calls on the UK Government ‘to remove its block on much-needed Gender Recognition legislation and update it with international best practice’. As humanists, we support a person’s right to live as and be legally recognised as the gender that they identify with. This is why we support the simplified gender recognition process agreed by MSPs in 2022.

End of life choice

The manifesto says ‘it is vital that we also support people to die well and we need to have honest conversations about what a good death looks like. Palliative care has been neglected for too long and we will invest in services so that people can access help and support in their community, 24/7’.

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 ‘deliver a long-term, sustainable funding model for hospice care’ and ‘establish an independent review of palliative care to drive urgent system reform’.

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