A petition calling on the UK Government to support a campaign to introduce paid miscarriage leave before 24 weeks has been launched by the SNP.
If the petition, started by Lanark and Hamilton East MP Angela Crawley, receives enough support it could lead to a debate on the issue in Westminster.
The SNP MP said it will allow the public to “tell the Government directly how strongly they feel” on the matter.
Ms Crawley’s Private Member’s Bill seeks to grant three days of statutory paid leave to parents who experience a miscarriage before 24 weeks of pregnancy.
It will have its second reading in the House of Commons in December.
The call comes after a joint letter from 50 cross-party MPs was last month sent to then prime minister Liz Truss and Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg urging the Government to lend its support.
The petition can be found online here.
Ms Crawley said: “There is political support at Westminster to introduce statutory paid miscarriage leave but the UK Government have yet to recognise this.
“By launching this petition, we are giving the public the chance to show their support for paid miscarriage leave and to tell the Government directly how strongly they feel and how important this issue is.
“If the UK Government get behind the Miscarriage Leave Bill, we can take a positive step towards eliminating the stigma associated with miscarriage and pregnancy loss as well as properly supporting parents who experience miscarriage before 24 weeks.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel