In a recent victory for abortion rights activists, the United Kingdom has decriminalized abortion for women in England and Wales. The vote on June 17 amended the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which introduced abortion-related offenses and threatened women with prison time for attempting to obtain an abortion.
Although enforcement from the Offences Against the Person Act was rare, around 100 women over the past ten years have been investigated for “unlawful” abortions, including some who experienced naturally occurring miscarriages and stillbirths. Since December 2022, six women have actually been charged. One woman was Nicola Packer, who took abortion pills during the COVID-19 lockdown. Ms. Packer took abortion pills believing she was six weeks pregnant, delivered a stillborn baby, and then was arrested in the hospital the next day, accused of having an illegal abortion. Midwives at the hospital called the police on Ms. Packer when they realized the stillborn baby was two weeks past the abortion limit of 24 weeks.
However, the most high-profile abortion case in the UK was Carla Foster’s lockdown abortion. Ms. Foster admitted to obtaining an abortion between the 32nd and 34rd weeks of her pregnancy, after giving the British Pregnancy Advisory Service information that would lead them to assume she was only seven weeks pregnant. She called emergency services in May 2020 to tell them she had gone into labor and delivered a baby who was pronounced dead 45 minutes later. Ms. Foster was charged with child destruction, but then pleaded guilty to an alternative charge. She was sentenced in June 2023 to a 28-month sentence, half in prison, half on parole. Ms. Foster was incarcerated in prison for 35 days, during which she was not allowed to communicate with her children, one of whom is autistic. However, her case was reviewed and her sentence reduced to 14 months suspended, meaning she would not return to prison unless she re-offended.
The new change in UK law emerges from a new amendment introduced by Tonia Antoniazzi, representing the Labour Party in Parliament. The NC1 amendment removes women in relation to their own pregnancies from the Offences Against the Person Act. Members of Parliament voted 379 to 137 to pass the amendment, displaying wide bipartisan support for the decriminalization of abortion.
Although abortion is no longer a criminal offense in the UK, the reform still preserves two requirements of the initial act: a 24-week limit for abortions and approval from two doctors. Both were established by the Abortion Act of 1967. Providers are still accountable for their actions if they violate licensing practices or approval rules.
Conservatives and anti-abortion groups have expressed concern over safeguards for abortions. Miriam Cates, a former member of Parliament, said decriminalization of abortions could lead to “DIY abortions” and women being coerced into terminating their pregnancies by their partner. Feminist writer Kathleen Stock also warned of the impact of the lack of deterrent of late terminations combined with easy access to abortion pills, mentioning the “potential for social norms to go in lots of directions that we can’t predict now.”
The NC1 Amendment is now moving to the House of Lords, where it may face greater opposition from more conservative peers, including Church of England Bishops. The Lords do not have the power to officially block the amendment, but they can delay the bill into the summer recess.
This vote is one of the most substantial shifts on abortion legislature in recent times, ending the criminalization of abortion and reframing the legal frameworks around reproductive rights while also preserving medical safeguards. It is now up to the House of Lords to decide the final status of the law before it is officially written.
