Women in England and Wales will no longer be prosecuted for having an abortion, after British lawmakers voted to decriminalise the procedure in an amendment to the government’s crime and policing bill.
On Tuesday, Britain’s Parliament approved an amendment put forward by the Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi, which passed with 379 voting in favour and 137 voting against.
The landmark decision essentially means that women procuring a termination later than 24 weeks (the current limit) cannot be prosecuted. Women who terminate their pregnancy after the time limit or terminate a pregnancy by buying pills online, will also no longer face arrest or prison.
Meanwhile, obtaining an abortion remains the same — women are required to have two doctors’ signatures, and they must procure a termination within the time limit that is set out. Women who induce a miscarriage still face the threat of maximum sentence of life.
Doctors and medical professionals who aid the process may still face the threat of prosecution.
The latest decision marks a huge step forward in reproductive rights for the women of England and Wales.
According to the latest surveys conducted by polling agency YouGov, the majority of the British population (roughly 88 percent) believe that women should have the right to an abortion.
President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Ranee Thakar is celebrating the decision as “a victory for women and for their essential reproductive rights.”
“Under the current laws, women who have experienced unexplained pregnancy loss may… be vulnerable to criminal investigation, and health professionals placed under unacceptable and unwarranted scrutiny,” she said.
“Worryingly, the fear of being investigated by the police may deter women from seeking urgent medical attention.”
Louise McCudden, UK head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices also welcomed the decision, saying, “At a time when we’re seeing rollbacks on reproductive rights, most notably in the United States, this crucial milestone in the fight for reproductive rights sends a powerful message that our lawmakers are standing up for women.”
Speaking to HuffPost UK ahead of the vote, the leader of the global charity’s UK arm said, “This is a complex area and it’s important we get it right. In the meantime, we advocate for a simple reform to the law which will end the prosecution of women who have been investigated under our Victorian abortion laws.”
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has publicly supported Antoniazzi’s amendment. Its chief executive Heidi Stewart described the vote as “a landmark moment for women’s rights in this country and the most significant change to our abortion law since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed”.
“This is a hard-won victory,” she said. “We thank all those who have campaigned alongside us, and in particular those women, like Nicola Packer, who have spoken out about their traumatic experiences in the hope of achieving the change parliament has delivered today.”
BPAS head of advocacy, Rachael Clarke, said: “The uniting issue for all these groups is that women must urgently be removed from the criminal law on abortion.”
In the past three years, a handful of women have been investigated, arrested or prosecuted with ending or trying to end their pregnancy outside abortion law, pushing advocates to call for a change to the law.
In May, British citizen Nicola Packer was found not guilty for taking abortion pills when she was around 26 weeks pregnant.
After an almost five year wait for her case to come to court, she was finally cleared of taking the prescribed medications mifepristone and misoprostol and acquitted of the charge of “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage.”
Packer, now 45, said last month — “To waste five years of my life that I’m never going to get back, I don’t know how anybody could justify that – to drag out the trauma continuously.”
“I would not wish this on anyone,” she added. “It has been the worst four and a half years of my life.”
One NHS consultant gynaecologist who was in charge of Packer’s care described the case as “a vindictive and brutal prosecution in which the CPS weaponised victim-shaming.”
“Wholly unnecessary details of Nicola’s relationships and sex life were prominent in the prosecution’s opening statement, made in the full knowledge they would be widely reported in the press,” Jonathan Lord said. “The police played several recordings of her confidential medical consultations in open court.”
“CCTV footage was shown of her arriving at A&E in considerable distress. Packer had to show the court intimate photographs of herself in her defence, all while sat in a packed courtroom as the jury viewed the images. No woman should ever have to endure institutionalised public shaming and humiliation, let alone in 2025 in England.”
Packer’s case was used in Antoniazzi’s argument while she was urging her colleagues to vote for her amendment.
“This is urgent,” Antoniazzi said. “We know multiple women are still in the system, awaiting a decision, accused of breaking this law.”
“They cannot afford to wait,” she said, adding that parliament had a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to put an end to this” and that there was a “moral imperative here”, which was “namely, vulnerable women being dragged from hospital bed to police on suspicion of ending their own pregnancies”.
In mid-2023, mother-of-three Carla Foster, who at the time was 44-years old, was given a 28-month extended prison sentence for terminating a pregnancy between 32 and 34 weeks.
Foster had admitted to procuring abortion tablets to end her pregnancy during lockdown. She had obtained the pills under the “pills by post” scheme after a remote consultation with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
Her sentence was eventually reduced to 14 months and subsequently suspended, after a court of appeal judge said Foster needed “compassion, not punishment.”
In the same year, Teesside resident Bethany Cox faced court charged with two offenses — administering a drug with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, and administering a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage. Cox, who was 22 at the time of the alleged offences, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In January 2024, she was cleared of the charges, with her barrister, Nicholas Lumley KC, saying that her client “has suffered so extensively over this prosecution and investigation, all the while grieving what took place”.
This week, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said that he backed the latest amendment put forward by Antoniazzi, and that he supported safe and legal abortion for women.
“It is a conscience issue, therefore it is a free vote, and therefore in that sense, it’s in the same category as assisted dying,” Starmer told reporters at the G7 summit in Canada. “But my longstanding in principle position is that women have the right to a safe and legal abortion.”
The latest changes to the law will not come into effect until the bill passes through the House of Commons and House of Lords in its entirety and receives royal assent. However, considering the size of the government’s majority, the bill is expected to pass without issue.
Become a Women’s Agenda Foundation member and support our work! We are 100% independent and women-owned. Every day, we cover the news from a women’s perspective, advocating for women’s safety, economic security, health and opportunities. Foundation memberships are currently just $5 a month. Bonus: you’ll receive our weekly editor’s wrap of the key stories to know every Saturday. Become a member here.