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

Post-20 Week Abortion Care

We need safe, stigma-free abortion provision up to the legal limit across Scotland.

People in Scotland should be able to access abortion care safely and securely up to the legal limit of 24 weeks. At the moment, this isn’t always happening because of a lack of surgical abortion providers and a historic culture of stigma.

The problem

Women and pregnant people should be able to make decisions about their own bodies, supported by a properly equipped healthcare service and free from stigma. This position reflects basic humanist principles of bodily autonomy.

Accessing mid-trimester (12-20 weeks) and post-20-week abortion often involves a surgical procedure. As such, it is vital that doctors in Scotland are trained to deliver surgical abortions. However, the provision of surgical abortion care in Scotland is extremely low. In 2022, 14% of abortions performed in England and Wales were surgical, compared with only 1.2% in Scotland. This reflects a lack of adequately trained doctors. It also reflects a culture of stigma around later-stage abortions, as this 2025 study shows.

For patients in Scotland seeking abortion care beyond 20 weeks, there is no option but to travel to England to undergo a surgical procedure. The prospect of travelling hundreds of miles for treatment can be deeply traumatic and practically challenging for patients, many of whom are seeking an abortion under highly complex and difficult circumstances.

The solution

We must ensure that abortion care is available up to the legal limit by establishing a central surgical abortion service in Scotland. Women and pregnant people must be able to access local, safe, and stigma-free abortion care without having to travel to another country.

Our campaign

We are working with Back Off Scotland and reproductive rights campaigners to bring pressure on the Scottish government to ensure access to abortion care up to the 24-week limit in Scotland.

Last year we wrote to the Scottish parliament backing a petition by humanist campaigner Gemma Clark to ensure abortion access up to the legal limit across Scotland. We urged the petitions committee to examine the role that systemic abortion stigma has played in the lack of post-20-week provision in Scotland. We also supported calls from BPAS and Back Off Scotland for the committee to urgently bring forward a parliamentary debate on this matter.

We will continue to fight for safe, practical, stigma-free access to abortion care up to the legal limit throughout Scotland.

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