During her appearance at the Women in the World conference last week, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon paused to apologize to the audience.
“I have to apologize because I get angry and upset just talking about this,” she said in an interview with publisher Tina Brown.
Sturgeon then described the so-called rape clause, a new policy in the U.K.’s welfare system that limits tax credits for children to a family’s first- and second-born. Subsequent children qualify for exemptions if they were born as a result of nonconsensual sex, but the provision requires a mother to prove her child was conceived by rape. The policy, first unveiled in the U.K.’s 2015 budget proposal, took effect Thursday.
As the government readied to implement the policy, it released the paperwork that women must complete to apply for the exemption. The eight-page form asks women to provide “any available evidence of a conviction for rape,” evidence of a financial award made in respect to the relevant sexual offense, or the signature of a health care professional to whom they’ve spoken about any coercive behavior related to conception.
Scottish National Party MP Alison Thewliss, who has spent years campaigning against the policy, says it’s “discriminatory and stigmatizing to the women and children in those circumstances.” It will force women to “relive the trauma of one of the worst experiences of their lives…just in order to claim tax credits,” she told the BBC.
When former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne introduced the two-child tax credit cap in 2015, he presented it as a way to cut welfare spending and to “be fair to working families” who don’t get the tax credits available to low income parents when they have more children.
Sturgeon referred to the provision as “disgusting and disgraceful,” adding that the policy “has been introduced by a woman prime minister.” Her not-so-subtle dig at U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May comes as the U.K. leader faces criticism for her cautious approach to women’s issues since entering 10 Downing.
“It’s not enough to be a woman in politics,” Sturgeon said. “You’ve got to do the right things with the power you’ve got.”