MPs vote in favour of measures to decriminalise abortion for women

MPs have voted in favour of measures to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancies.

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill was supported, with MPs voting 379 to 137, majority 242.

The Gower MP said it will remove the threat of “investigation, arrest, prosecution or imprisonment” of any woman who acts in relation to her own pregnancy.

She told MPs she had been moved to advocate for a change in the law having seen women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions.

24-week limit

During the Bill’s report stage, Ms Antoniazzi 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”.

On issues such as abortion, MPs usually have free votes, meaning they take their own view rather than deciding along party lines.

During a Westminster Hall debate earlier this month, justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the Government is neutral on decriminalisation and that it is an issue for Parliament to decide upon.

‘Landmark’

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) said the vote is a “landmark moment for women’s rights”.

Chief executive Heidi Stewart said: “This is a landmark moment for women’s rights in this country and the most significant change to our abortion law since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed.

“There will be no more women investigated after enduring a miscarriage, no more women dragged from their hospital beds to the back of a police van, no more women separated from their children because of our archaic abortion law.

“This is a hard won victory, and we thank all those who have campaigned alongside us, and in particular those women, like Nicola Packer, who have spoken out about their traumatic experiences in the hope of achieving the change parliament has delivered today.

“When we launched the campaign to decriminalise abortion in 2016, we could not have envisaged that within a decade such progress would be achieved.

“In the past six years, we have seen more progressive reform of abortion law than we had seen in the previous 50.

“Today’s vote is testament to the strength of support for abortion rights across the healthcare sector, civil society, parliament, and the country as a whole.

“We look forward to continuing to work with MPs to deliver wider reform and an abortion framework fit for the 21st century.”