This article references abortion, baby loss, and sexual assault.
Earlier this year, I won a pub quiz for the first time in my life. OK, it wasn't a pub quiz per se; it was a quiz on contraceptive health to celebrate the launch of a new book, Contraception by Alice Pelton. Yep, in a crowd full of doctors, it was little ol' me who brought home the trophy (a replica model of a uterus, FYI). Why? Because I was one of the few who knew that abortion is still technically a crime in the UK.
But that could change. A legal change to the current abortion laws in the UK is set to be debated in the House of Commons today, June 17. This comes after two Labour MPs, Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy, tabled rival amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill.
One or both of their proposed amendments will be debated by MPs today, but it is expected that only one of the amendments will be chosen by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle for debate before a vote.
So, what are the current laws surrounding abortion?
While it is damn sight easier to get an abortion in the UK than the USA, it's only available up to 24 weeks and you still need the procedure to be ‘authorised’ by two doctors. If you don't meet these criteria, you face life in prison.
In England & Wales, our abortion laws are rooted in Victorian – literally Victorian – legislation, namely the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, at a time when women couldn't vote, couldn't own property, and could legally be raped by their husbands. The Abortion Act, introduced in 1967, didn't decriminalise abortion; it simply made it legal in certain circumstances. In 2019, abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland, but not in England and Wales.
Nigel Farage has said MPs should look at rolling back Britain’s abortion limit.
Antoniazzi (backed by 176 MPs across the political parties as well as a number of abortion providers) is one of the MPs seeking to change these laws. Her amendment calls for the removal of women from the criminal law in relation to ending their pregnancies. This would mean women who end their pregnancies after 24 weeks or without the approval of two doctors would no longer face criminal sanctions.
“The reality is that no woman wakes up 24 weeks pregnant or more and suddenly decides to end their own pregnancy outside a hospital or clinic,” she said. "But some women, in desperate circumstances, make choices that many of us would struggle to understand. What they need is compassion and care, not the threat of criminal prosecution."
Her amendment would, however, keep punishments for medical professionals and violent partners who terminate a pregnancy outside the law.
Meanwhile, Creasy's similar but rival amendment seeks to enshrine abortion access as a human right and also to prevent women who have terminated their own pregnancies from being investigated. Backed by 108 MPs, but not abortion providers, her amendment aims to stop women from being investigated under any circumstances.
“We are not supporting NC20, and neither are any of the abortion providers in the country,” said Rachael Clarke, the head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas).
She added, “For us, unfortunately, although we truly believe that we need overwhelming and generational change for abortion law, Stella Creasy’s amendment is not the right way to do it."
Although two rival amendments are on the table, it's a hopeful sign that the law may soon change.
As Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, says, “Abortion that happens outside of the current law generally involves very vulnerable women, including those facing domestic abuse, mental health challenges or barriers to accessing NHS care. Yet alarmingly, prosecutions of women have been increasing in recent years."
Indeed, just last week, Nicola Packer, 45, was found not guilty of having an illegal abortion, after enduring invasive police questioning and a four-year wait for a public trial. After being treated for a traumatic stillbirth in hospital, she reports being put in the back of a police van, not being given her anti-clotting medication on time while in custody, and, when the trial finally came around, she was inappropriately quizzed about her sex life and intimate body parts in court.
In an interview with The Guardian, she said, “I do hope that the law does get changed – it should do. Abortion is healthcare. It should not be treated as anything other than that.”
At the time, a CPS spokesperson said: “We recognise the profound strength of feeling these cases evoke, but have a duty to apply laws passed by parliament fairly and impartially.”
In the past three years in England, six women have appeared in court charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy outside of the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act.
I felt safer getting my abortion in a country that forthrightly enshrines abortion access in law.
Heidi Stewart, Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, said: “We have just witnessed the shameful public trial of a woman who sought medical attention after a traumatic medical experience, her private life picked apart by prosecutors and reported in the national press, at a huge emotional and financial cost. Prosecuting women for ‘illegal’ abortion is never in the public interest, and no woman should ever have to go through this again.”
It's easy to take our right to a safe, legal abortion for granted. Until one day, you need it. One day, you're on hold to your GP, you're manically researching and ringing around abortion care providers, you're fretting about who to tell, you're cancelling plans, you're wondering if you can get pills sent by post, you're wondering if anti-choice protestors will ambush you outside the clinic – all while navigating the mind-numbing fear that if you do anything wrong, you could be questioned by police and dragged to court.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, and MSI UK have issued statements urging MPs to back the amendment.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
After a decade of trying to find the right contraception, this method brought balance back to my body.
