LONDON — The U.K. parliament is set to consider decriminalizing abortion in England and Wales this summer, two people with knowledge of the plans have told POLITICO.
Two backbench Labour MPs are drawing up separate proposals to change the law which would be brought before MPs in the coming months, after previous plans ran out of time before the 2024 general election.
The proposed amendments to a government bill look likely to prompt the second high-profile vote of conscience in a short time by MPs, as a bill to legalize assisted dying is likely to clear the Commons by mid-June.
It will also push the issue back on the news agenda at a time when social conservatives in the U.S. are tightening abortion restrictions and watching British policy closely. Vice-President J.D. Vance accused politicians of a “backslide away from conscience rights” in February over buffer zones, which restrict harassment and protests outside abortion clinics, after a man was prosecuted for praying and then refusing to move on.
An 1861 law makes it a crime in England and Wales for a woman to “procure her own miscarriage.” However, parliament passed a 1967 act allowing abortion up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy, if a number of conditions are met and two doctors provide a sign-off.
Campaigners for abortion rights believe this situation is out of date, especially after sections of the 1861 law were repealed in Northern Ireland in 2019.
‘Unfinished business’
Tonia Antoniazzi, one of the two Labour MPs drafting an amendment on decriminalization, told POLITICO: “Vulnerable women are being investigated and prosecuted under this cruel and outdated law, and I believe this must change as a matter of urgency. I’m working towards change in this area and would welcome any opportunity to work with colleagues from all sides of the House [of Commons] on the reform we desperately need.”
Stella Creasy, the other MP drafting an amendment, told POLITICO the situation in Northern Ireland had created “unfinished business … and left my own constituents without the same protection of their basic human right to access a safe, legal and local abortion.”
The two MPs each plan to propose a different cross-party amendment to the Labour government’s Crime and Policing Bill when it returns for its report stage in the Commons.
This is expected before the summer recess, said the two people with knowledge of the plans — not the MPs quoted above — who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The Labour government would not back the proposals and MPs would almost certainly be given a free vote, they added.
The Commons speaker would only decide much closer to the time whether the amendments are selected for a vote. However, cross-party amendments with wide support are more likely to be selected.
Two different amendments
Creasy and fellow Labour MP Diana Johnson proposed separate amendments on this topic last year after they each took different approaches to decriminalization.
The amendments were never debated, because the bill they were attached to fell away when the Tory government called the general election.
Johnson has since become a Home Office minister, so Antoniazzi is expected to put forward an amendment similar to the one she brought forward last year.
Johnson’s amendment was worded simply, disapplying the criminal law on abortion against a woman ending her own pregnancy. Johnson said at the time that it retained the need for a time limit and two doctors’ sign-off.
Creasy’s amendment is likely to be longer and more detailed. It would have different wording to the one Creasy brought forward last year, and would likely repeal aspects of the criminal abortion law entirely, prevent retrospective criminal investigations, and include a so-called “lock” that would make it harder for future governments to tighten restrictions on abortion.
Creasy said she believed extra provisions were needed “in the light of growing evidence of anti-abortion activism around the country.” She added: “Crucially, it explicitly protects time limits as well as protecting the right of women to access an abortion from any future government using secondary legislation to take it away.
“It would be, for the first time, writing into law that the secretary of state had to protect the human right of a woman in England and Wales to access an abortion.”
Changing parliament
The make-up of parliament has changed dramatically since the issue was last in headlines.
Last year’s bill would have also seen MPs debate tighter restrictions, including a proposal to cut the upper limit for most abortions from 24 to 22 weeks.
But that amendment’s proposer Caroline Ansell lost her seat in the 2024 election, along many other socially conservative MPs — replaced by a wave of Labour MPs who in many cases are younger and more socially liberal.
Tory MP Neil O’Brien, a critic of last year’s decriminalization effort, told POLITICO that removing offenses that prevent women from self-administering abortions “could drive more women to attempt late-term, at-home abortions well beyond our 24-week abortion time limit, needlessly putting their lives in danger.”
He said ministers should instead “urgently reinstate face-to-face medical appointments before abortion pills are prescribed, to determine the gestation of the pregnancy and ensure that women seeking abortion are not being coerced into getting an abortion.”
Last year’s election also ushered Reform UK leader Nigel Farage into parliament. The right-wing populist, who has predicted he will become prime minister in 2029, said in November: “Is 24 weeks right for abortion given that we now save babies at 22? … That to me would be worthy of a debate in parliament but should that be along party lines? I don’t think so.”
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