In the Guardian today:

Vulnerable women in England still being arrested over suspected illegal abortions – Nottinghamshire and Met police made arrests in past year, despite MPs voting to decriminalise in England and Wales. Vulnerable women in England still being arrested over suspected illegal abortions Nottinghamshire and Met police made arrests in past year, despite MPs voting to decriminalise in England and Wales. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/15/women-arrested-suspected-illegal-abortion-england-police

Has any woman been arrested for taking part in an ‘illegal’ abortion in Scotland?

No, there is no public record or reported case of a woman in Scotland being arrested for participating in or procuring an “illegal” abortion (such as self-administering abortion pills beyond legal limits, performing an unlawful procedure, or similar offenses under abortion laws).

Abortion in Scotland is governed by the Abortion Act 1967 (as in the rest of Great Britain), which allows abortions up to 24 weeks (with exceptions later in cases of risk to life/health or severe fetal abnormality), typically performed or supervised by medical professionals. Home use of abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) has been permitted under temporary and then permanent regulations since the COVID-19 period, but within gestational limits and telemedicine frameworks.

Searches across news sources (including BBC, Guardian, and others) show recent arrests of women in Scotland related to abortion laws have involved anti-abortion protesters (e.g., Rose Docherty, arrested multiple times in 2025 under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Scotland Act for breaching buffer zones near clinics/hospitals by holding signs or offering conversation). These are offenses against protest restrictions, not against obtaining or performing an abortion.

In contrast, cases of women arrested or prosecuted for suspected illegal abortions (e.g., taking pills beyond limits or self-inducing miscarriage) have occurred in England (not Scotland), such as:

• Nicola Packer (accused but cleared in 2025 of using pills during lockdown).
• Other historical or recent English cases under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

No equivalent Scottish cases appear in reports up to the current date (March 2026). If such an incident had occurred, it would likely have been covered given the sensitivity of abortion law debates in the UK. Scotland’s approach has generally been more aligned with decriminalization efforts, though prosecutions remain possible under older criminal statutes if outside legal frameworks.

Even pre-1967 Act:

Historical academic sources (e.g., a 2015 paper on Scotland and the Abortion Act 1967) discuss pre-1967 “back-alley” abortions and the legal flaws but provide no specific named cases or arrests of women post-1967 (or even pre-1967 in detail) for self-procured abortions. Pre-1967 references are general to dangers and reform debates, not individual prosecutions.