'I watched a woman be prosecuted for an illegal abortion, now I want to change the law'
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This week I tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that if passed will decriminalise abortion. The move has the backing of more than 70 MPs and nearly 50 organisations including the British Medical Association and five medical Royal Colleges.
Commenting on social media, some of my Gower constituents expressed disbelief that abortion could still be illegal in this country.
But in the last five years, more than 100 women have been investigated by the police for suspected illegal abortion under a draconian law – the 'Offences Against the Person Act' 1861.
Eight of these women have appeared in court. One has been jailed.
Among those arrested have been women who've suffered natural miscarriages and stillbirths, and others who have gone into unexplained premature labour.
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.
In 1967 the Abortion Act was introduced meaning you could legally access an abortion, provided you met certain criteria: you are under 24 weeks' pregnant, you meet one of seven medical reasons, and have your abortion signed off by two doctors. Today, that law still stands. It's why it's possible to access a safe, legal abortion.
But if you're suspected of having an abortion without meeting the criteria at any gestation of pregnancy, you can be investigated, charged and ultimately prosecuted, potentially facing a life sentence – the most severe penalty for an illegal abortion in the world.
In 2019 my colleagues in Westminster had the good sense to repeal this archaic law for Northern Ireland. My amendment will simply bring legislation up to date in England and Wales – and in line with 50 other places worldwide including the Republic of Ireland, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand.
It was meeting Nicola Packer at her trial for alleged illegal abortion that compelled me to put forward the amendment. My colleague Tracy Gilbert MP and I spoke to her days before she was unanimously cleared by a jury in southwest London.
Nicola was, as you might expect, hugely traumatised by her prosecution – having maintained throughout her trial that she was unaware she was any more than 10 weeks' pregnant.
She has also spent the last four-and-a-half years waiting for her case to come to court, living in constant fear that she could go to jail.
Seeing Nicola in the dock, afraid and humiliated, my heart went out to her. To me she was not the suspect, but the victim.
The victim of a Victorian-era law that criminalises women who end their own pregnancies.
That's why, this week in Parliament, I tabled the amendment to disapply the law to women in cases of suspected abortion offences.
We absolutely have to recognise that criminalisation is not the way to provide the care and support that all of these incredibly vulnerable women need – my amendment will finally bring it to an end.
The amendment will not, however, remove any important safeguards. It will not change any law regarding the provision of abortion services within a healthcare setting, including the time limit, the provision of telemedicine, the grounds for abortion, or the requirement for two doctors' approval.
Parliament is expected to vote on the amendment in early summer. If it gets passed, all cases related to this outdated law currently going through the criminal justice system will end.
And Nicola Packer will go down in history as the last woman in England and Wales to be prosecuted for an abortion.
Tonia Antoniazzi is the Labour MP for Gower
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