SNP ‘frontrunner’ Kate Forbes has a troubling record on abortion and trans rights

Kate Forbes is being tipped as a potential SNP leader, but her choice of church, comments on abortion and views on trans rights are concerning.

Forbes, the SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, has served as finance secretary in the Scottish government since 2020.

A poll taken before Sturgeon’s resignation made her the favourite to succeed as first minister, with seven per cent support – though 69 per cent said the “didn’t know”. The right-wing press is already lauding her as the obvious choice and frontrunner.

In some ways, she’s proven herself a trailblazer. She’s the first ever female finance secretary in Scotland, and she became the first woman to deliver a budget in 2020.

But other aspects of her record will come as a worry to LGBTQ+ people.

Forbes is an evangelical Christian who has spoken out against abortion and gender recognition reform.

In 2019, she was one of 15 SNP politicians who signed a letter calling on the Scottish government to delay plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).

The letter said that “conflating sex with gender identification affects a wide range of policy and service delivery, including data collection education, health and social care, justice and sport”. 

The 15 SNP politicians signed the letter despite the fact that the party had committed to reforming the act to make it less cumbersome ahead of the 2016 Scottish election. 

Forbes, who is currently on maternity leave, told The Times after the Scottish government voted in favour of gender recognition reform that her view hadn’t changed and that parliament “risked creating bad law”.

Kate Forbes on church and abortion

In her personal life, Kate Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, a denomination that seeks to reflect “clear Biblical teaching”.

The church has vocally opposed same-sex marriage, abortion and a ban on conversion therapy.

Speaking to the BBC, Forbes said of her faith: “To be straight, I believe in the person of Jesus Christ. I believe that he died for me, he saved me and that my calling is to serve and to love him and to serve and love my neighbours with all my heart and soul and mind and strength”. 

Her religious views may have influenced her perspective on abortion. In 2018, she spoke at a religious event where she delivered a “prayer for the nation”.

“May our politicians recognise that the way we treat the most vulnerable – whether the unborn or the terminally ill – is a measure of true progress,” she said. Her words prompted much criticism.

Heather Herbert is a Scottish activist fighting for bodily autonomy and LGBTQ+ rights. She thinks Forbes would be a “disaster” for the queer community if she were to become the next SNP leader and first minister.

She expects Forbes would stop the Scottish government from pushing ahead with a legal challenge against efforts to block gender recognition reform, given her previous opposition.

That said, Herbert doesn’t think there’s major cause for concern.

Even if Forbes does run, she would likely struggle to garner wide support within the SNP.

“While she is popular in some quarters, her extreme religious views will alienate a large amount of SNP members,” Herbert says.

If she did somehow win, Forbes’ leadership could also pose a threat to the SNP’s coalition with the Greens.

“The Scottish Greens are very progressive, even compared to Nicola Sturgeon, and so being forced to work in a government headed by such a socially conservative leader is likely to fracture the coalition, further harming the cause of Scottish independence,” Herbert says.

PinkNews has contacted Kate Forbes for comment.