CARE backs Ash Regan Bill to introduce Nordic Model in Scotland

Joining together with Restore Glasgow (an anti-human trafficking group) and Evangelical Alliance Scotland, we decided to publicly back Ash Regan MSP’s ‘Unbuyable’ Bill by calling the Church together in Glasgow to hear and understand what’s happening and why.

The scene was set on a very balmy Tuesday night on 4th November at SGT in Glasgow. Sitting cabaret style in an appropriately lit venue, Chris Ringland of Evangelical Alliance chaired the evening throughout, bringing shape to the subject of the evening.

We were then all shocked out of our happy mood by the video shown, a video about Scottish male attitudes to buying women for sex. This film was produced by the Cross-Party Group of the Scottish Parliament on Commercial Sexual Exploitation. Thereby the tone was firmly set.

Following the tough viewing (and it was very difficult to follow given the nature of the film!) was Stuart from CARE for Scotland, setting the theological scene for why Christians are motivated to speak up for women trapped in prostitution and to challenge male attitudes to women in seeking to purchase sex. This focus came in a retelling of the woman who barged into Simon the Pharisees’ house to cry over and anoint Jesus’ feet. The ‘why’ is that Jesus looks beyond the choices of our lives, seeking out those who need liberated from oppression, and seeing the inherent value in those unfairly stigmatised, to set them on renewed paths of flourishing.

Next up was Karen Miller from Restore Glasgow who carefully set out the reasons why women end up in prostitution. There are many varied reasons for this, and almost every one of them is related to others’ seeking to exploit women for financial gain. If this is the intent behind ensuring that women are stuck in prostitution, women are surely no longer viewed as human. At the very least they are treated as vastly inferior to the men who control and buy them. With exactitude Karen painted a grim but accurate picture.

The main act though was to hear from Ash Regan MSP. Her ‘Unbuyable’ Bill is precisely that – to make the conditions in Scotland such that it’s illegal to purchase sex from a woman in an indoor setting (because soliciting and buying outdoors is already illegal); offering supportive, safe routes out to women in this situation; and proposing the expungement of any criminal record of those leaving prostitution behind.

She was eager to point out the woeful situation that Germany has landed in by legalising prostitution to the most extreme extent. This example is quite close to home. She spoke candidly, but calmly and was unsurprisingly informed, having previously had this as her portfolio as Minister of Community Safety for the SNP Government.

The event then turned to the floor, where guests could put their questions of policing, political will, the nature of the liberal left in politics, attitudes of Scottish men and women, as well as medical and safety concerns, to the panel of speakers. Ash and Karen handled the questions with sensitivity and ease, knowing that there’s not always easy answers, but firm in the conviction that there are dire circumstances which need addressed in our country.

One thing was abundantly clear, that calling our eight MSPs to understand and condemn the scourge that is commercial sexual exploitation is vital to the atmosphere changing in Scotland. They need to support Ash’s Bill at the Stage 1 vote, and it is our job to get them to do so!

Find out more about the nature of this sinister reality.

Commit to praying about this problem being frustrated.

To contact your MSPs about this, find them here. Ask each one to get behind Ash Regan’s ‘Unbuyable’ Bill.