The SNP is facing the threat of legal action after cancelling a booking made by the UK’s largest anti-abortion group at its upcoming party conference.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, better known as SPUC, had secured a place at the SNP gathering but was told its event would not be going ahead. Now the group is pushing back hard, with lawyers involved and a formal legal threat on the table.
SPUC says the cancellation amounts to unlawful discrimination and has instructed solicitors to pursue the matter if the SNP does not reverse its decision. The group argues it had a legitimate booking and that pulling it without proper justification is both unfair and potentially illegal.
The row puts the SNP in an awkward spot. The party has long positioned itself as a champion of progressive values and reproductive rights, and allowing an anti-abortion organisation a platform at its own conference was always going to raise eyebrows among members. But cancelling that booking has now opened a very different can of worms.
SPUC has been vocal in its response, making clear it has no intention of quietly walking away. The organisation believes it was treated differently because of the views it holds, and that this kind of viewpoint-based exclusion crosses a legal line.
For the SNP, the timing is far from ideal. The party is already navigating a difficult period politically, and a legal dispute over conference access is the kind of distraction it could do without. Internal critics may question how the booking was handled in the first place, while others will argue the party had every right to decide who gets a platform under its roof.
The wider debate around abortion access in Scotland has been simmering for some time. Holyrood has seen attempts to introduce buffer zones outside abortion clinics, and the question of how much space anti-abortion voices should have in mainstream political settings remains deeply divisive.
SPUC, which campaigns against abortion and assisted dying, has a long history of lobbying at political events across the UK. Being removed from a confirmed slot, the group says, is not something it is prepared to accept without a fight.
Whether this ends up in court or gets resolved behind closed doors remains to be seen. But with lawyers now in the mix, the pressure is on the SNP to either justify its decision clearly or find a way to settle the dispute before it escalates further.