More than 100 women are believed to have been investigated by the police in recent years under abortion laws, campaigners say, as they renew efforts to decriminalise the medical procedure.
Health professionals, charities and MPs are saying “women deserve better” and should not face investigation under an “archaic” 164-year-old law, which sees abortion in England and Wales remain a criminal offence.
The issue most recently came to the fore after a woman was cleared by a jury for ending her pregnancy during the COVID lockdown in 2020.
Nicola Packer, 45, had taken abortion medicine when 26 weeks pregnant – beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks. She told jurors she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks.
Following the trial, her friend said she had been “persecuted” for a “tragic accident”.
It is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time, such as when the mother’s life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) is backing a new amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, brought by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, stating that “no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy”.
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The amendment would do away with the threat of investigation – or even imprisonment – some women face.
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Previous attempts to change the law had been set to go before parliament, but could not take place after parliament was dissolved last summer for the general election.
Ms Antoniazzi supported Ms Packer during her recent trial, and said the current law is “unacceptable”.
“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.”
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Law won’t change time limit
The latest attempt follows repeated calls to repeal sections of the 19th-century law – the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act – after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019.
Bpas said the latest amendment would not change the law regarding provision of abortion services within a healthcare setting – including the time limit, grounds for abortion or approval of two doctors.
Bpas said: “For every woman who ends up in court, at least 10 others are subjected to prolonged police investigations which can prevent them from getting the mental health support they desperately need and which have resulted in existing children being separated from women whose cases never make it to court. Women deserve better.”
A separate amendment, proposed by Stella Creasy, would not only decriminalise abortion but “lock in” the right to have one, and protect those who help.
Read more: What are the abortion laws in UK and the punishments for breaking them?
It follows the case of Carla Foster, who was jailed in 2023 for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy.
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She later had her sentence reduced on appeal.
Ms Creasy last week said the law must be changed so that “the right to choose is a human right”, ensuring no repeat of “such awful cases and victimisation of vulnerable women again”.
Last month, Scotland’s women’s health minister, Jenni Minto, said she was “disappointed” that some still have to travel to England for late-term abortions, amid concerns that women in Scotland can only have a termination after 20 weeks in cases where there is either a foetal abnormality or the woman’s life is at risk.
