UK MPs vote to decriminalise abortion for women in all cases
UK MPs on Tuesday voted to end contentious prosecutions of women in England and Wales for terminating a pregnancy, paving the way for a huge overhaul of how the country's abortion laws are enforced.
Currently, a woman can face criminal charges for choosing to end a pregnancy after 24 weeks or without the approval of two doctors, under laws which technically still carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The issue has gained attention in the UK due to recent court cases. In one, a woman was cleared by a jury at trial, while another was released from prison on appeal.
MPs voted by a majority of 242 on Tuesday in favour of an amendment put forward by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, which would ensure that no woman would be criminally pursued for terminating her own pregnancy at any time -- even though the amendment leaves the underlying abortion laws unchanged.
The full crime and policing bill must now be voted on by parliament and then pass the upper House of Lords before becoming law.
"Women are currently being arrested from hospital bed to police cell and facing criminal investigations on suspicion of ending their own pregnancy," Antoniazzi told AFP.
"My amendment would put a stop to this," she said, adding it was "the right amendment at the right time".
Abortion in England and Wales is a criminal offence under the Offences Against the Person Act, passed in 1861 during the Victorian age and which theoretically carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The Abortion Act 1967 made terminations legal in certain circumstances, including by permitting it up to 23 weeks and six days of gestation if done by an authorised provider.
Abortions are allowed in limited circumstances after this time, such as if the mother's life is in danger or there is a "substantial risk" the child could be born with a serious disability.
An update to the law introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic allows women to take abortion pills at home up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy.
In May, Nicola Packer was acquitted after taking prescribed abortion medicine when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the 10-week legal limit.
The 45-year-old told jurors during her trial, which came after a four-year police investigation, that she did not realise she had been pregnant for so long.
"It was horrendous giving evidence, absolutely awful," she told The Guardian newspaper last month.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has however called the proposed amendment "the greatest threat to unborn babies in decades".
- 'Optimistic' -
Antoniazzi's amendment will not change any of the laws regarding the provision of abortion services, including the time limits.
And anyone assisting a woman in getting an abortion outside the remits of the law, such as medical practitioners, will still be liable for prosecution.
Some 50 organisations, including abortion providers, medical colleges, and women's rights groups, have backed the amendment.
They say six women have appeared in court in England charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy outside abortion law in the last three years.
Carla Foster was jailed in 2023 for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant. The Court of Appeal eventually suspended her sentence.
Antoniazzi said police have investigated "more than 100 women for suspected illegal abortion in the last five years including women who've suffered natural miscarriages and stillbirths".
"This is just wrong. It's a waste of taxpayers money, it's a waste of the judiciary's time, and it's not in the public interest," she told the BBC Tuesday.
When asked about the vote, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday that women have the right to a "safe and legal abortion".
Northern Ireland decriminalised abortion for women in 2019. Scotland is currently reviewing its abortion laws.
pdh/jwp/gv
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Former S.F. Mayor London Breed reveals her post-City Hall career plans
Former San Francisco Mayor London Breed has been quiet about her professional plans since she left office in January, but that's starting to change. The Aspen Policy Academy announced Wednesday that Breed and G.T. Bynum, the Republican former mayor of Tulsa, are its first bipartisan 'civic innovation' advisers-in-residence. The academy, a Bay Area-based operation of the Washington, D.C. think tank Aspen Institute, said Breed and Bynum will spend six months mentoring fellows on policy projects, representing the academy at events and working on projects about policy subjects of their choosing. It's not a full-time job, though it does come with a stipend, and Breed is believed to be exploring other unspecified career opportunities as well. Still, the academy's announcement provided the first public indication of how San Francisco's former mayor is spending some of her time following 12 years as an elected official in the city. 'This program is about more than learning how government works — it's about inspiring a new era of civic leadership,' Breed said in a statement released by the academy. Aspen Institute CEO Dan Porterfield said in a statement that mayors 'bring distinctive insights to the work of policymaking given their proximity to the people and communities they serve.' Breed and Bynum 'will be an invaluable resource to future policy leaders,' Porterfield said. The Aspen Institute has connections to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization tied to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He was one of Breed's top benefactors when she ran for reelection last year. Breed also appointed a former Bloomberg staffer to the board of supervisors during her final weeks in office. Breed was elected mayor in 2018 and served in the role for more than six years, until she was unseated in November by Daniel Lurie. A native of the city who grew up in public housing in the Western Addition, she was the first Black woman mayor of San Francisco. Her tenure at City Hall was marked by a series of overlapping crises, including the pandemic, which hurt the city's economy and upended the agenda on which she campaigned. Breed won praise for her early response to COVID-19, but her tenure quickly became dominated by public outrage over rampant drug use on city streets and record overdose deaths driven by the rise of fentanyl. As downtown offices emptied out, major retailers fled Union Square and viral videos of brazen property crimes spread online. San Francisco's reputation took a nosedive, further complicating Breed's fight for another term. Her reelection campaign last year centered around a hopeful message, pointing to a drop in reported crime and other developments as evidence that she was leading San Francisco out of its pandemic doldrums. But Lurie, a political outsider who'd never held elected office before, ultimately defeated her by 10 points
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Iran questions US ‘trust' in nuclear talks as negotiations remain stalled amid Islamic Republic's conflict with Israel
Iran is questioning its 'trust' in the US to engage in nuclear talks as Tehran has refused to restart negotiations until Israel halts its attacks. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused the Trump administration of using nuclear negotiations as a cover for Israel's airstrikes on the country's nuclear program, claiming the attacks came just two days before a new round of talks between US and Iranian officials were set to start. 'So they had perhaps this plan in their mind, and they just needed negotiations perhaps to cover it up,' Araqchi said Friday in an interview with NBC News. Advertisement 4 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused the Trump administration of using nuclear negotiations as a cover for Israel's airstrikes on the country's nuclear program. NBC News 'We don't know how we can trust them anymore. What they did was, in fact, a betrayal of diplomacy.' He vowed that negotiations would cease as long as Israel's 'aggression continues,' flatly rejecting Trump's demands to scrap its uranium enrichment and balking at his 'two week' deadline to reach a deal. Advertisement 4 Satellite image of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant in Iran. © 2025 PLANET LABS PBC/AFP via Getty Images 'I told him several times zero enrichment is impossible,' Araqui said of his meetings with special envoy Steve Witkoff, who he accused of contributing to a 'lack of confidence' between the two nations. He later called Tehran's nuclear program a scientific 'achievement' and a source of 'pride and dignity,' insisting that even if it were bombed and destroyed, Iran would rebuild it using the knowledge and technology it has amassed over the years. But Araqchi said US officials could resolve the issue with a single phone call to Tel Aviv to halt the attacks. Advertisement 4 Iranian foreign minister expressing distrust of the U.S. following Israeli attacks. NBC News 'They can stop this process very quickly, and then we will consider diplomacy again,' he told reporter Andrea Mitchell during the sit-down. 'They have asked us to negotiate, but we negotiate only when it is negotiation and not dictation.' Israel began its attack on Iran last Friday by taking out its top nuclear scientists and military officials responsible for the country's nuclear enrichment program. Advertisement 4 President Trump gave Iran a two-week deadline to restart negotiations to reach a deal. Ron Sachs/CNP / President Trump earlier this week spent days behind closed doors vacillating between negotiating a deal with Iran to limit its uranium enrichment and potentially joining Israel in bombing Tehran's nuclear facilities. The president said Thursday he'd make a final decision within the 'next two weeks' as he still holds out hope for renewed negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. Araqchi warned that if the US joins Israel in launching an attack on Iran, the country will strike back. 'When there is a war, both sides attack each other. That's quite understandable. And self-defense is a legitimate right of every country,' he said. 'If the US joins Israel in these attacks, we will do the same.'
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Opponents of assisted dying vow to fight on as MPs back Bill
Opponents of assisted dying have urged the House of Lords to give Kim Leadbeater's Bill 'the scrutiny that it needs' after MPs narrowly backed the legislation. Ms Leadbeater's Bill passed what could be its final Commons hurdle by 23 votes, down from the majority of 55 it secured when MPs first voted on it in November. The Spen Valley MP declared 'thank goodness' after the result while Rebecca Wilcox, daughter of campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, said it was 'wonderful' the result had come ahead of her mother's birthday. But opponents vowed to fight on against what they called a 'deeply flawed Bill'. A group of 27 Labour MPs who voted against the legislation said: 'We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care. 'As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill.' But Ms Leadbeater told the PA news agency she hoped there would be no 'funny games' in the Lords, as her Bill faces further tough hurdles in the upper chamber. She added: 'I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.' Meanwhile, one of the leading opponents of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, described its supporters as 'enemies', saying he felt 'like Evelyn Waugh at the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939'. In a series of tweets on Friday night, the East Wiltshire MP accused assisted dying campaigners of being 'militant anti-Christians' who had failed to 'engage with the detail of the Bill'. He added: 'It's the revenge of the middle-aged against their dependents.' Ms Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill will now proceed to the House of Lords, where it will undergo further scrutiny before becoming law, should peers decide to back the legislation. But some peers have already spoken out against the legislation, with the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, saying they 'must oppose' the Bill as 'unworkable and unsafe'.
