‘Cruel' criminalisation of women over abortion must end, says MP ahead of vote
The 'cruelty' of women facing prosecution over terminating a pregnancy must end, an MP has told Parliament as she argued for a change in the law to decriminalise abortion.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi said her amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would remove women from the criminal justice system in relation to their own pregnancies, ensuring they could not face investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment.
She said the UK's 'Victorian' abortion law is 'increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls' and that her amendment is the 'right change at the right time' and a 'once-in-a-generation' opportunity to bring change.
Abortion in England and Wales remains a criminal offence but is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time, such as when the mother's life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability.
It is also legal to take prescribed medication at home if a woman is less than 10 weeks pregnant.
Efforts to change the law to protect women from prosecution follow repeated calls to repeal sections of the 19th-century law, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019.
Ms Antoniazzi said her proposed 'narrow, targeted' measure does not change how abortion services are provided or the rules under the 1967 Abortion Act.
She said: 'This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help. As I have said it before, and I will say it again, just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.'
She added that her amendment is backed by 180 MPs from across the Commons and 50 organisations including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).
The MP assured her colleagues the current 24-week limit would remain, abortions would still require the approval and signatures of two doctors, and that healthcare professionals 'acting outside the law and abusive partners using violence or poisoning to end a pregnancy would still be criminalised, as they are now'.
A separate amendment has also been put forward by Labour MP Stella Creasy and goes further by not only decriminalising abortion, but also seeks to 'lock in' the right of someone to have one and protect those who help them.
Ms Creasy's amendment will also be debated but 'will fall' if Ms Antoniazzi's is passed by MPs, the Commons heard.
Referring to Ms Creasy's amendment, Ms Antoniazzi said while she agreed 'more comprehensive reform of abortion law is needed', such change of that scale should take place through a future separate piece of legislation.
Conservative MP and Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh, speaking against both amendments, described them as 'not pro-woman' and argued they 'would introduce sex-selective abortion'.
DUP MP Carla Lockhart insisted 'both lives matter', saying the proposed amendments 'would be bad for both women and unborn children'.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is not present for Tuesday's vote, outlined her opposition to both amendments in a letter to constituents, saying while she believes safe and legal abortions are part of female healthcare, the amendments 'unnecessary' and 'dangerous'.
The issue of women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions has come to the fore in recent times with prominent cases such as those of Nicola Packer and Carla Foster.
Ms Packer was cleared by a jury last month after taking prescribed abortion medicine when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks for taking such medication at home.
She told jurors during her trial, which came after more than four years of police investigation, that she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks.
The case of Ms Foster, jailed in 2023 for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant, eventually saw her sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal and suspended, with senior judges saying that sending women to prison for abortion-related offences is 'unlikely' to be a 'just outcome'.
MPs had previously been due to debate similar amendments removing the threat of prosecution against women who act in relation to their own pregnancy at any stage, but these did not take place as Parliament was dissolved last summer for the general election.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has urged MPs to vote against both amendments, saying they would bring about 'the biggest expansion of abortion since 1967″.
Alithea Williams, the organisation's public policy manager, said: 'Unborn babies will have any remaining protection stripped away, and women will be left at the mercy of abusers.
'Both amendments would allow abortion up to birth, for any reason.
A separate amendment, tabled by Conservative MP Caroline Johnson proposes mandatory in-person consultations for women seeking an abortion before being prescribed at-home medication to terminate a pregnancy.
She said her amendment aims to make sure women and girls are safe when they access abortion services.
She told the Commons: 'I'm not trying to limit people's access to what is clinically legally available. I'm trying to make sure that people are safe when they do so.'
She said the change she has proposed would be to protect women who have been trafficked and forced into sex work or those who have been sexually abused and where a perpetrator is attempting to cover up their crimes by causing a termination.
But Ms Antoniazzi said remote access to abortion care was 'safe, effective and reduces waiting times', and that such a change would 'devastate abortion access in this country'.
The changes being debated this week would not cover Scotland, where a group is currently undertaking work to review the law as it stands north of the border.
On issues such as abortion, MPs usually have free votes, meaning they take their own view rather than deciding along party lines.
The Government has previously said it is neutral on decriminalisation and that it is an issue for Parliament to decide upon.
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