OUTRAGE: Scottish National Party funneled taxpayer money to pro-abortion policy group

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has reportedly given more than £1.3 million to a pro-abortion group that is pushing for an "extreme" law which would allow sex-selective abortion.

Key Takeaways:

• The SNP has been funding the pro-abortion policy writing organization, Engender, for years, giving the group over £1.3 million since 2021.

• Engender has advocated for expanded abortion laws, including allowing abortion on the grounds of the baby's gender, allowing abortion after 24 weeks, and enshrining abortion as a right.

• The taxpayer money given to Engender accounted for 97% of its funding in the fiscal year ending in March 2024.

The Details:

"Advancing divisive causes"

According to The Telegraph, since 2021, SNP has given £1,336,833 in taxpayer dollars (a little over $1.7M USD) to Engender, an abortion advocacy group that wants to see the 1967 Abortion Act replaced with a "rights-based framework" law surrounding abortion. It would codify abortion as a right and remove the current 24-week limit, allowing abortion up to birth.

According to financial records, for the year ending March 31, 2024, the £1.3 million accounted for 97% of the group's funding.

“Taxpayers will not be happy to learn that their money is being used to push extreme policies," MSP Stephen Kerr said. “This is yet another example of the SNP Government using taxpayer cash to bankroll groups that push an extreme ideological agenda. Common sense says we stop this funding of charities to push extreme policies. Taxpayers’ money should be spent on the priorities of the people of Scotland, not on advancing divisive causes that most Scots would find deeply concerning."

A recent report on proposed changes to the current abortion law included input from Engender and multiple individuals, "the majority of whom have either been on the board or worked for the UK's largest abortion provider, BPAS, or have a history of pro-abortion campaigning," Right to Life UK reported. BPAS is the British Pregnancy Advocacy Advisory Service, the UK's largest abortion business.

According to the report, Engender influenced the panel, including on the "urgent need to modernise Scotland's abortion law and prevent prosecutions." Engender claimed "that the legal framework stigmatises those who seek abortion by requiring them to meet outdated and excessive procedural thresholds which unnecessarily infringe on their privacy when accessing routine healthcare."

'Limits' with Loopholes

The report recommended that:

• The existing 24-week limit for most abortions should be retained.

• Abortions after that gestational limit should be permitted in certain circumstances.

• Abortion up to 24 weeks gestation should be allowed for any reason whatsoever.

As for after 24 weeks, the recommendations in the report included that grounds for an abortion at that stage and beyond should include that "an appropriately trained registered healthcare professional is authorized to provide an abortion... [if] the healthcare professional decides in good faith that performing the abortion is appropriate..."

In other words, the person paid to kill preborn children is entrusted with deciding whether a given reason for killing a baby beyond 24 weeks is acceptable.

In "considering whether an abortion is appropriate: the healthcare professional should have regard to —

"(a) the gestational age of the fetus;

"(b) all relevant current and reasonably foreseeable medical circumstances of the patient and the fetus;

"(c) the patient’s current and reasonably foreseeable physical, psychological and social circumstances."

The obvious problem here is that babies born at 24 weeks have a 60-70% chance of survival if delivered alive, instead of intentionally killed prior to delivery.

The panel also recommended that sex-selective abortion not be restricted, and that doctors who conscientiously object to committing an abortion be required to refer women to an abortionist who will kill her child. It was also recommended that notifying the Chief Medical Officer of an abortion no longer be required.

Part 5: North Carolina abortion clinics facilitate the killing of a girl, just because she's a girl.

Why it Matters:

Engender is a Scottish policy and advocacy organization focused on increasing access to abortion. It is funded by the government to carry out abortion policy work and research. Government funding of a pro-abortion organization that works to increase abortion access, and is allowed to then influence abortion-related laws, is an obvious and blatant conflict of interest.

In addition, induced abortion is not health care. It is the direct and intentional killing of preborn human beings based on convenience and discrimination. No child needs to be actively and deliberately killed, even if the pregnant mother's health or life is in danger.

“The Scottish Government should be ashamed, and Scottish taxpayers should be furious about this gross misuse of their money," Right to Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said. "The Scottish Government are essentially spending other people’s money on a lobby group to lobby themselves to push an extreme abortion agenda, which includes abortion up to birth and sex-selective abortion. If lobbyists want to push this extreme and vile law change, they should not be doing so with taxpayers’ money, and the Scottish Government should know better than to provide it."

The Bottom Line:

It is one thing to deliver a baby to save a woman's life and another to kill and then deliver the baby. The difference is clear — but groups like Engender, which seek to increase abortion numbers for financial profit, muddy the terms to gain support for the inhumane practice.