Abortion Law Review Expert Group minutes: February 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Professor Anna Glasier – Chair
• Sarah Wallage – Scottish Abortion Care Providers (NHS Grampian)
• Sinead Cook – Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health
• Professor Sally Sheldon – University of Bristol
• Dr Lynsey Mitchell – University of Strathclyde
• Andrew Lothian – Law Society of Scotland, Health and Medical Law Sub-Committee
• Professor Anne-Maree Farrell – University of Edinburgh
• Rachael Clarke – British Pregnancy Advisory Service
• Dr Alastair Campbell – Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Professor Sharon Cameron – Scottish Abortion Care Providers (NHS Lothian)
• Jill Wood – Engender – representing the Advisory Group of reproductive rights groups

Secretariat

• Sean Reid – Scottish Government
• Sam Baker – Scottish Government
• Harriet Rogerson – Scottish Government
• David McIlhinney – Scottish Government, note of meeting

Apologies

• Professor Marion Bain – Deputy Chief Medical Officer

Items and actions

Welcome and last meeting recap

• The Chair welcomed the attendees to the meeting and noted apologies.
• The Chair provided a short recap of the January meeting, and noted that this meeting would follow on from those discussions.
• The Expert Group (the Group) was updated on a roundtable meeting between the Scottish Government policy team, the Chair and organisations with ranging views on abortion law, but generally leaning towards anti-abortion views.

Agreement of minutes from Meeting 5

• The note of the previous meeting was agreed with no amendments.

Discussion on views provided by stakeholder and evidence review

• The Group considered submissions and views provided by stakeholders.
• The Group then considered the range of evidence included within stakeholder submissions with key themes on the topics being considered and the evidence provided by stakeholders either agreeing, disagreeing or having a neutral position per theme.
• The Group discussed how they could add their own evidence into this spreadsheet for the evidence base and how this should be presented in the final report. The secretariat confirmed they would look into options for group members to work jointly on this document.

Discussion on proposals for Scottish Law

• The Group discussed various proposals regarding what they would recommend on the topics across patient and provider pathways.
• The Group discussed what elements of this should be in law and what should be in clinical guidance.
• The Group discussed areas of the law including the requirement for two doctors to authorise an abortion; notification to the Chief Medical Officer; regulation of services; who can provide abortions; where abortions can take place; what data should be collected; and conscientious objection.
• A member of Group with legal expertise provided an overview of the existing adults with incapacity legislation and how any future abortion law could work in relation to this.
• The Group agreed to finalise their recommendations at a later date, once all topics have been considered.

Agreement of potential recommendations

• The Group agreed to draft the options based on their discussions thus far and agreed that this would then be finalised by the Group at a later date.
• It was suggested that the Group should have an iterative document with all recommendations for all topics discussed, that can be added to, so it is easier to consider how each recommendation works alongside the others.

Any other business

• The Chair explained the remaining timeline for the Expert Group, including the next topic of offences, reviewing all of the recommendations for all topics together and agreeing the draft of the final report.
• The Chair encouraged the group to provide literature that should be included to support their evidence base, which can be sent to the secretariat.
• The next meeting will be on 12 March 2025.