British lawmakers voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion for the pregnant woman – in striking contrast to the crackdown on reproductive rights in the United States.
Lawmakers voted by an overwhelming majority to invalidate Victorian-era legislation that makes it possible to prosecute a woman for ending her pregnancy in England and Wales, though medical professionals who help terminate a pregnancy beyond certain limits will still be breaking the law.
Currently, abortion beyond the first 24 weeks of pregnancy is illegal in those two parts of the United Kingdom. Beyond that time limit, it is permitted in certain circumstances, such as when the mother’s life is at risk. While abortions are common in England and Wales, women who terminate their pregnancy outside of existing restrictions face the threat of criminal investigation, arrest, prosecution and even imprisonment.
Tuesday’s vote – which amends a draft policing and crime law – seeks to remove those threats. The amended bill needs to pass through both chambers of the UK parliament before it can become law.
The vast majority of Britons believe women should have the right to an abortion, according to YouGov surveys stretching back to 2019. The latest poll, conducted in April, showed that 88% of respondents supported that right.
US crackdown
Britain’s vote comes as its ally across the Atlantic has dramatically restricted abortion rights. Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 – which had enshrined abortion as a constitutional right – many US states have introduced severe restrictions or outright bans on the practice. The changes have completely upended the landscape of reproductive health and choice in America.
Louise McCudden, UK head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, a charity providing abortions, thinks there is a connection between Tuesday’s vote and a “hostile climate” toward abortion rights in the UK driven by the changes in the US.
“On the rare occasions when you do see women who are suspected of ending a pregnancy over 24 weeks, they are invariably in extremely vulnerable situations,” she also said, noting that the women who had been investigated in the UK included domestic abuse survivors, potential trafficking survivors and women who’d had miscarriages and stillbirths.
However, the UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children strongly condemned Tuesday’s vote.
“If this clause becomes law, a woman who aborts her baby at any point in pregnancy, even moments before birth, would not be committing a criminal offense,” Alithea Williams, the society’s public policy manager, said in a statement Tuesday.
“Now, even the very limited protection afforded by the law is being stripped away,” she added.