Calls for decriminalisation of abortions have been growing louder in recent years – in line with a growing number of women being prosecuted for terminating their pregnancies.
Until 2022, it is believed that only three women had ever been convicted of having an illegal abortion in the 150 years since 1861, when the procedure was made illegal under the Offences Against the Person Act.
But in the last four years, at least half a dozen women have found themselves in the dock of a crown court accused of ending their pregnancy, and dozens more have been arrested or investigated by police.
Two high-profile cases in particular fuelled the calls for change. Carla Foster was jailed in 2023 for an illegal abortion, before having her sentence suspended a month later by the court of appeal. And just weeks ago, Nicola Packer was cleared by a jury after spending almost five years facing the threat of prison.
Thirteen people, both men and women, made a first appearance at magistrates court charged with abortion-related offences in 2022, according to freedom of information data from the Crown Prosecution Service, compared with four people in 2019 and three in each of 2020 and 2021.
Data from about half of Britain’s police forces showed at least 11 people were arrested in 2023 on suspicion of child destruction or inducing a miscarriage, including a 31-year-old woman in north Wales “reported to have taken illicit substances to initiate an abortion”.
There are several more known cases of women arrested in the past 18 months that are not included in the data.
In the last parliament, Diana Johnson, now a Home Office minister, attempted to change the law by bringing an amendment to the previous government’s Criminal Justice Bill, but the 2024 general election meant the legislation never made its way through parliament.
Parliament had already seen a move towards more liberal abortion laws. In 2020 telemedicine brought the biggest reform to abortion provision in England and Wales since the 1967 Abortion Act, which set out the current framework by which terminations can be carried out.
Instead of women seeking a termination in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy needing to take the first pill under medical supervision, they could receive both pills by post after a remote consultation.
Although it was introduced as an emergency measure during the pandemic, telemedicine was made permanent in 2022, with MPs voting 215 in favour to 188 against. The same year, parliament also voted 297-110 to introduce safe access zones, commonly known as “buffer zones” around clinics, to stop women seeking abortion care from being harassed by protesters.
In 2019, Northern Ireland’s abortion laws were also modernised, with terminations allowed up to 12 weeks, and later under limited circumstances.
In a referendum in 2018, Ireland had also made abortion legal on request up to 12 weeks, and later if the foetus would be likely to die before or shortly after birth or if there is a risk of death or serious harm to a pregnant woman.
In both Northern Ireland and Ireland, the culpability for a termination carried out outside of legal time frames lies with anyone who assists a woman procure an abortion, rather than the woman herself. Both countries had also previously had some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, with terminations banned in almost all circumstances.
In other parts of the world, change is moving in the opposite direction. In June 2022, the United States supreme court overturned the decision of Roe v Wade, and ruled there was no constitutional right to abortion. Laws are instead now decided state by state, with 19 of them either banning abortion or restricting access.
Parliament’s latest vote is unlikely be the last on the subject. Medics, lawyers, politicians and campaigners recognise that the 1967 act is in need of reform.
Work to establish what a new framework should look like has already begun, but as Louise McCudden, UK head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, a reproductive health NGO, said: “Getting abortion law reform right will take time, and we want to make sure we do that in a way that takes into account expert opinion, takes into account women’s voices [and] human rights groups.”
But, McCudden said: “The women who are being investigated and facing prosecution and jail can’t afford to wait.” And parliament’s latest vote means that now there will be no more Carla Fosters, or Nicola Packers.
