Tuesday’s vote to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales was historic. For the first time, parliament made it clear: no woman should face prison for ending a pregnancy.
Vulnerable women who seek to end late-term pregnancies deserve compassion and support, not prosecution. This is a moment to call for lasting, meaningful reform because the fight for reproductive freedom is far from over.
Under laws dating back to 1861, abortion has been treated not as healthcare, but as a crime. The law that still governed abortion – the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – predates the lightbulb. It was written at a time when women couldn’t vote, own property, or sit in parliament, and yet anyone found guilty of an offence under the act could face life imprisonment.
Even the 1967 Abortion Act didn’t change the threat of criminalisation, but simply carved out narrow exceptions such as if abortion was necessary to prevent grave, permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. Even now, a woman must get the approval of two doctors to access an abortion. No other medical procedure has been subject to statute or carries the threat of criminal prosecution. That’s state control.
In recent years, women have been investigated, prosecuted, and even jailed, sometimes for having late-term miscarriages. I represented a woman accused of murder in the most tragic of circumstances; fortunately, she was eventually cleared. These cases are traumatising and unjust. The criminalisation of abortion doesn’t protect women, it punishes them. In my view, the experts, healthcare providers, must regulate abortion just like any other medical procedure.
Tuesday’s vote says: enough. But words must now become action. Every in-progress prosecution must be dropped. Every woman convicted under these laws must be pardoned. Their criminal records must be expunged. They should never have been criminalised in the first place.
There’s also no excuse for leaving the 1861 and 1967 acts on the statute books. They must be repealed. They don’t belong in a modern legal system. They belong in a museum, consigned to history books.
Some argue that criminal law is needed to stop abusive men from coercing women into abortions. That insidious form of reproductive control must be tackled. But we already have laws on coercive control, and if required, new legislation could be introduced to address a lacuna in the law. Using Victorian abortion laws to address modern-day abuse does not work. The law has no democratic authority when women were regarded as second-class citizens.
We must go further. Abortion must be enshrined in law as a human right. One in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. Yet access remains patchy and precarious. Women still travel hundreds of miles for care. Clinics face harassment. Buffer zones are under threat. Doctors fear prosecution. This is not how a fair, compassionate country treats healthcare.
What we need now is a comprehensive abortion law fit for the 21st century, one that fully decriminalises abortion; puts decision-making in the hands of women and healthcare professionals, not politicians; safeguards access to telemedicine; and invests in local, timely, and free services for all who need them.
Healthcare decisions should be made in consultation rooms, not courtrooms. Abortion is not a crime. It’s healthcare.
Tuesday’s vote was urgent and overdue. But if we stop here, we leave millions of women at risk. Now is the time for full reform, not half measures. The question is not whether this goes too far; it’s whether we’re brave enough to go far enough.
This piece was co-authored with Dr Jonathan Lord, medical director at MSI Reproductive Choices
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