Latest news with #ToniaAntoniazzi
The Independent
5 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Nigel Farage accused of following ‘Trumpian playbook' on abortion
Campaigners have raised concerns over Reform UK leader Nigel Farage 's calls for stricter abortion laws, saying his plans could have "catastrophic consequences for women". Mr Farage said that allowing abortions up to 24 weeks is "ludicrous" and believes the law is "totally out of date", advocating for a debate on implementing stricter time limits. Stella Creasy, a Labour MP, criticised Mr Farage's comments as part of a "Trumpian playbook", suggesting a coordinated effort to restrict abortion access through seemingly reasonable measures. Tonia Antoniazzi, another Labour MP, is campaigning for an amendment to decriminalise abortion, arguing that "no woman should have Nigel Farage dictating their reproductive rights". The British Pregnancy Advisory Service has said there is no medical justification for reducing the abortion time limit.
Daily Mirror
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Police could check period tracking app after pregnancy loss under new guidance
New guidance from the National Police Chiefs Council allows police to search your home, seize your phone and check your period tracking apps after a pregnancy loss Guidance quietly released by the National Police Chiefs' Council in January states that women who experience a sudden unexpected pregnancy loss, if they suspect a miscarriage, stillbirth or early labour is the result of an illegal abortion could be investigated by the police. According to the guidance, women could have their homes searched for evidence of abortion drugs and their phones seized for their search history, period tracking apps or fertility apps checked for evidence of whether they were aware of their pregnancy. A spokesperson for the NPCC told The Standard that an investigation would only be initiated where there is credible information to suggest criminal activity. They said: "This would often be because of concerns raised from medical professionals.' They also told The Observer that unexpected pregnancy loss was not 'routinely investigated' and 'any investigation of this nature will always be treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion'. The Mirror has reached out to the NPCC for comment. The guidance comes in light of the Abortion Act, introduced in 1967, which allows women to legally terminate a pregnancy up to 28 weeks and with the certification of two doctors. The limit was reduced to 24 weeks in 1990. However, abortion is still classed as a criminal offence in Britain and women could be prosecuted under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Under the law, there have only been three conviction achieved, but criminal investigations into women who have suffered from miscarriages or had a premature or a stillbirth have recently increased. Six women have been taken to court over the past two years and over 100 women have been investigated, according to a report by the Independent. Later this year, an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, brought by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi and signed by over 50 cross-party MPs seeks to decriminalising abortion and ending the prosecution of women who terminate pregnancies after the 24-week limit is due to be voted on in Parliament. But the recent guidance from the NPCC has raised concerns among pro-choice campaigners, abortion charities and period tracking apps alike, who have pushed back on the frightening development. Katie Saxon, Chief Strategic Communications Officer at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, told the Mirror that this is a "clearest sign yet that women cannot rely on the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, or the courts to protect them." She said: "As an abortion provider, we know how the police treat women suspected of breaking abortion law. But to see it in black and white after years of criticisms of the way this outdated law is enforced is harrowing. 'This guidance was written at the same time as unprecedented threats to global abortion rights and while Parliament was set to consider decriminalising women," Saxon added. 'The only way to stop this is to remove women from the criminal law on abortion.' Saxon also condemned the NPCC's guidance for the police to use period trackers against women and said that it proves just how "detached from reality" the organisation is. Rhiannon White, CEO of period tracking app Clue revealed that they were "shocked and outraged" at the development and assured the Mirror in a statement that they "have never, and will never, disclose private health data to any authority. It's our firm and relentless commitment since our founding over a decade ago." Similarly, Flo 's Vice President of Privacy, Sue Khan told us: 'Women deserve to be able to use technology to learn more about their bodies and their personal health, without fearing their data will be unjustly used or taken in a way they have not agreed upon." If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at Sands (stillbirth and neonatal death charity). You can call them on 0808 164 3332 or email helpline@ You can also find help and support at the Miscarriage Association. You can call them on 01924 200799 or email If you are pregnant or a new mother and you are in crisis, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline provides free, confidential support 24/7 in English and Spanish. Call or text the hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262).
New European
16-05-2025
- Politics
- New European
It's time to decriminalise abortion
Said offences, for which women can still be prosecuted, mostly derive from the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861, and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act of 1929. Though it is, in practice, legal to get an abortion during the first 24 weeks of a pregnancy – and afterwards in some very specific circumstances – the legislation has, until now, essentially acted as a series of loopholes, as opposed to a thorough rewriting of the law. It is, if anything, remarkable that it hasn't happened yet. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi should be applauded for her amendment to the crime and policing bill, of course, but it feels incredible that it is needed at all. If it passes, it will remove 'women from the criminal law related to abortion', and would mean 'no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy'. Antoniazzi's amendment seeks to change that, and currently has the backing of over 50 MPs, from Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine and the Greens' Carla Denyer, to Conservative Caroline Dinenage, the SDLP's Claire Hanna and Llinos Medi from Plaid Cymru. Also in favour of the legal change are – deep breath – the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. In short: it ought to be a slam dunk. It's also not the first time the Commons has been set to vote on the topic, as Labour MP Diana Johnson had put forward a similar amendment under the last Conservative government, but the general election was called before the criminal justice bill could go through Parliament. Though the government is yet to give its formal backing to the changes, it is hoped that ministers will do so. Keir Starmer has, so far, not exactly excelled in the realm of socially liberal issues, and ensuring that women are no longer criminalised for what happens inside their bodies would be a step in the right direction. Read more: Europe is fighting its own abortion battle As Antoniazzi has said, 'there is simply no world in which prosecuting a vulnerable woman who may have experienced a medical complication, miscarriage or stillbirth is the right course of action'. It also seems worth saying that, given both the global context and the way various parties are currently polling, now feels like the right time to enshrine women's rights in law, with little room for tweaking or backtracking. Americans thought that Roe v Wade had become untouchable, but clearly it wasn't. We in Britain would struggle to think of a world in which abortion would get criminalised again, but we should still prepare for a world in which it is a possibility. Govern for the times you're in, not the ones you wish you could be having, and all that. On a lighter note, there is something quite comforting about this amendment, which has so far been hiding in plain sight. Over 50 MPs have backed it, most of them women, and they're from every corner of the political spectrum. Perhaps most importantly, many of them were also at war with each other until recently. Antoniazzi is a prominent gender critical campaigner; Nadia Whittome, a fellow Labour MP, is one of Parliament's most outspoken campaigners on transgender rights. Many of the parliamentarians now agitating for the same thing were, and probably will be again at some point, on opposite sides of the gender debate. That they are now able to work together on such an important feminist issue should feel like encouraging news. Liberation movements have, after all, often had to become broad coalitions of people who otherwise disagreed on most things to be effective. It was sometimes feared that the rise of social media, algorithms and echo chambers would put an end to such large tents. It is a tremendous relief to see that it hasn't happened and, when the circumstances demand it, all these people can still work together. All that is needed now is for the government to remember that it ought to, once in a while, act as the progressive party it professes to be. Politics currently feels like the place where good news goes to die, and wouldn't it be nice for that to no longer be the case, even for one day?
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Abortion decriminalisation plans pushed by Labour MP
A Labour MP has launched a bid to decriminalise abortions, after campaigners revealed estimates that police have prosecuted more than 100 women under abortion laws in recent years. Abortion remains a criminal offence in England and Wales unless under strict circumstances - including taking place before 24 weeks into the pregnancy with the approval of two doctors - under a 164-year-old law. Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower, tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to decriminalise the process without "changing anything about provision of abortion care". Antoniazzi said the current situation was "unacceptable" and led to police prosecuting vulnerable women. Nearly 60 MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Plaid Cymru have put their names to Antoniazzi's amendment. MPs had been due to debate similar amendments last year, but Parliament was dissolved for the general election before this could take place. How do the UK's abortion laws compare? Buffer zones set to come in around abortion clinics Last year a BBC investigation found an unprecedented number of women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy. Some investigations followed natural pregnancy loss, the report by File on 4 found. Pregnancy loss is investigated only if credible evidence suggests a crime, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council. The issue was in the news again this week when Nicola Packer, 45, was cleared by a jury of "unlawfully administering" herself with abortion pills at home during a coronavirus lockdown in 2020. She had taken 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 she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said Ms Packer's trial demonstrated "just how outdated and harmful" current abortion law was and called for reform. RCOG are among several royal medical colleges, charities and trade unions backing Antoniazzi's amendment. Records collected by the UK's largest abortion services have found at least 100 women have been investigated for having an abortion in the last five years. Of those, six have appeared in court according to data collected by British Pregnancy Advisory Group (Bpas), National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service (NUPAS) and MSI abortion services. Antoniazzi said: "There is simply no world in which prosecuting a vulnerable woman who may have experienced a medical complication, miscarriage or stillbirth is the right course of action." She said her amendment, laid before Parliament on Tuesday, is "tightly drawn - not changing anything about provision of abortion care, the time limit, the right to conscientious objection or any other aspects of abortion law". She added: "I am confident that, when Parliament has the opportunity to vote on these proposals, my colleagues will agree that never again should a woman be prosecuted for ending her own pregnancy in England and Wales." The amendment follows repeated calls to repeal sections of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. Abortions were completely illegal under 19th Century law until it was modified by the 1967 Abortion Act, which initially allowed them to take place up to 28 weeks. This was reduced to 24 weeks in 1990. Abortions after 24 weeks are allowed only if: the woman's life is in danger there is a severe fetal abnormality the woman is at risk of grave physical and mental injury Since 2018, women in England have taken the second abortion pill at home, aligning the rules with Scotland and Wales. Though the same rules apply in Scotland, it has a distinct healthcare and legal system. Abortion laws are currently under review in Scotland following appeals from advocacy groups' to decriminalise the process. Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019. Latest figures show there were 251,377 abortions recorded in England and Wales in 2022 - the highest number since the Abortion Act was introduced and an increase of 17% over the previous year. About 88% of recorded abortions took place before 10 weeks, after which the procedure must be carried out in an approved clinic or NHS hospital. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘I gave birth three months early – then police investigated me over an illegal abortion'
Sammy was being ferried into an ambulance by paramedics – after giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her newborn baby – when she realised there were around eight police officers in her living room. The mother, in her thirties, had just given birth at home to a baby boy who arrived over three months early, weighing just one pound and seven ounces – little more than a bag of sugar. Police had arrived to assist her in giving lifesaving CPR. But Sammy* says that, while in shock from the traumatic and unexpected birth – and with her baby still fighting for his life – she suddenly found herself at the centre of a criminal investigation. This would become a devastating 51-week ordeal, triggered by England's 164-year-old law criminalising abortion, despite the fact that she hadn't actually had one. 'My front room was full of police officers – there must have been about eight. Then out on the street, my husband said there were two ambulances, two unmarked police cars, and a regular police car. I just thought: why?' Sammy has decided to retell her horrific experience as the issue of illegal abortion in the UK reached parliament this week. Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower, has put forward an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to remove the criminal aspect of ending abortions illegally, to bring England and Wales in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland. MPs are expected to vote on the issue this summer. In an interview with The Independent, Sammy said: 'They were following my husband around – he wasn't allowed to be alone. I was at the hospital, not knowing what was happening at home. Then, they told my son he had to leave. He had 10 minutes to get his things and get out.' According to Sammy, that day police seized all their electronic devices, including two Xboxes, cordoned off their home with crime scene tape, and arrested her husband when he returned to pick up clean clothes – 'under suspicion of procuring a miscarriage by instrument or tablets'. They dug through bins and held on to her placenta for months. The next morning, when she was discharged from hospital while her baby fought for his life in an incubator, she says she was questioned by police about whether she had attempted to end the pregnancy illegally. Sammy told police she had only explored the option of a termination and researched abortion pills online, but had been told she was too far along in the pregnancy to go ahead with it. 'I was open and honest from the get-go, but we were treated like criminals,' she says, visibly distressed. 'When they took me to the police station for questioning – I cried through most of it and just said, 'No comment.'' Her husband, released on bail, was initially barred from seeing or even communicating with Sammy or their baby. Even when that restriction was eased, the parents were only allowed to visit their new son under police supervision. This went on for 51 weeks. Shortly before the baby's first birthday, the investigation was finally dropped, and Sammy and her husband were cleared. But the damage had been done. 'No other woman should have to go through that. Abortion should be decriminalised,' she says. Sammy's story, though horrifying, is not an anomaly. She is one of more than 100 women whom rights groups believe have been investigated by police in recent years under the same 164-year-old Offences Against the Person Act which Ranee Thakar, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), tells The Independent is 'the oldest healthcare law still in existence.' Some women have even had their children removed. In fact, there has been an unprecedented surge in convictions related to abortions and pregnancy losses under this legislation. Six women have appeared in court over the past two years charged with ending their own pregnancies. Prior to that, only three convictions had been reported for illegal abortion since the law was introduced in 1861. There is a common misconception that abortion is legal in the UK. The 1967 Abortion Act legalised terminations in England, Wales, and Scotland, now up to 24 weeks, provided two doctors sign off that continuing the pregnancy would pose a risk to the woman's physical or mental health. In the wake of the pandemic, that was amended to allow eligible women in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy to have a medical abortion at home. Outside of those bounds, women are at risk of jail – which is where rights groups say the problem lies. Just this week, Nicola Packer – who endured a four-year investigation and public trial – was unanimously acquitted by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court in southwest London. She had been accused of 'unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing' with the 'intent to procure a miscarriage'. In the wake of her acquittal, she told The Independent the process had been deeply traumatic – critics said she faced public shaming at the hands of prosecutors. 'The stress for more than four years was immense, and it was impossible to live normally,' Ms Packer tells The Independent. 'Although it's a relief that I was finally believed and it's all over, it's going to be very hard to ever trust the NHS and police again.' Jonathan Lord, the clinician in charge of Ms Packer's care and co-chair of the RCOG abortion taskforce, slammed the process as a 'vindictive and brutal prosecution in which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) weaponised victim-shaming'. Lord, who said he has had to help several women and teenagers who have been investigated by the police, says it is 'incredibly traumatic, where every element of your most personal life is exposed, your phone and computer are taken and searched for messages, images, menstrual apps, and internet searches'. 'Even in those who are never charged, most have suffered long-term mental health issues and post-traumatic stress disorder and say they cannot trust the NHS or police again.' The situation is now so urgent that 60 MPs, multiple Royal Colleges (including the RCOG), and numerous healthcare professionals are backing a cross-party amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would remove women from the criminal law in relation to ending their own pregnancies and bring England and Wales. The amendment was laid in Parliament on Tuesday night by Ms Antoniazzi. She tells The Independent that an increasing number of women have been subjected to 'utterly deplorable' criminal investigations for a 'crime' that does not even apply in two other parts of the UK: Scotland and Northern Ireland. 'The harm inflicted upon these women is lifelong and profound. This cannot continue,' she says, adding that it particularly impacts vulnerable women. The Royal College's Dr Thakar said one of the biggest concerns is the chilling effect the law could have on women and healthcare providers. The RCOG was so alarmed by the rise in investigations that it issued new guidance to medical professionals last January, urging them not to report women to police if they suspect a pregnancy may have been ended illegally. 'Many women may become too afraid to seek help, fearing criminal consequences. Abortion care is a safe, essential part of healthcare. By criminalising it, we make a safe procedure unsafe because women avoid seeking help when they need it,' she continues. 'They should be treated with care and compassion, without judgment or fear of imprisonment. Otherwise, the result is silence and suffering.' Another backer of the law change is the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which told The Independent that women 'are being arrested straight from the hospital ward, their homes searched, and their children taken away'. 'This cannot continue. Members of Parliament have a moral duty to decriminalise abortion for women and end the threat of police, prosecutions, and imprisonment once and for all,' Katie Saxon, chief strategic communications officer at BPAS, said. It comes amid a groundswell of support for change. In a separate initiative launched this month, a cross-party group of MPs led by Stella Creasy called for abortion to be protected as a human right in England and Wales, following a similar, successful campaign in Northern Ireland in 2019. Other countries have enshrined a human right to access abortion, Creasy said at the time, adding that now is the time to act as 'politicians are using women's bodies as their battlefield'. Last month, campaigners spearheaded by teacher Gemma Clark and supported by BPAS, delivered a petition to Downing Street that was signed by over 100,000 UK residents calling on parliament to reform the abortion law. It has triggered a debate in parliament expected in the coming weeks The Independent asked the CPS about the devastating impact the surge in investigations and convictions was having on women involved – particularly in the wake of Nicola Packer's trial, during which personal details were shared in court. A spokesperson defended the move, saying that information was shared 'only to establish the fact of when she may have fallen pregnant, and her understanding of the gestation period'. 'Our prosecutors exercise the greatest care when considering complex and traumatic cases such as this one,' a spokesperson added. A government spokesperson, meanwhile, said that 'All women have access to safe and legal abortions on the NHS' and that 'decisions to prosecute – within existing legislation – are for the CPS and are incredibly rare.' In Sammy's case, the relevant police force acknowledged in a statement to The Independent the 'particular sensitivities of this case' but said the initial investigation was undertaken 'to safeguard all involved'. They defended the action to investigate and the duration: 'This was a complex investigation, requiring extensive forensic and medical evidence, and unfortunately these kinds of enquiries take time.' But Sammy says she fears that other women will 'lie and hide' if they find themselves in her position unless the law changes, due to fear of being prosecuted. During her investigation, she says she spent nearly a year 'thinking every little car door that slams is the police coming to take me and my husband away.' Now she is trying to piece her life back together, while still worrying the police might come after her again.'I was open and honest with them… that openness and honesty got me nowhere. I got treated like a criminal when I am not one. 'Look at the outcome. All we got was an apology and a message that the investigation was dropped.'The law needs to be changed. I wouldn't wish this upon anyone.' *Name changed
