Stop sending women to prison for having an abortion

In the UK, one in three women will have an abortion by the age of 45 and 90% of the population is pro-choice. Abortion is recognised as a safe and common form of healthcare – but in Britain, access is still defined by a law passed in 1861, before women even had the right to vote. If women access abortion outside of these legal restrictions, they can be sent to prison.

Abortion is one of the very few forms of healthcare still written into criminal law. The 1967 Abortion Act made abortion legal under specific circumstances, but if someone accesses an ...

In the UK, one in three women will have an abortion by the age of 45 and 90% of the population is pro-choice. Abortion is recognised as a safe and common form of healthcare – but in Britain, access is still defined by a law passed in 1861, before women even had the right to vote. If women access abortion outside of these legal restrictions, they can be sent to prison.

Abortion is one of the very few forms of healthcare still written into criminal law. The 1967 Abortion Act made abortion legal under specific circumstances, but if someone accesses an abortion outside of these parameters, they could face a police investigation or even jail time.

There have been recent cases where women in the UK have suffered pregnancy loss and were then accused of having an abortion outside the legal limits. They deserved to be treated with compassion and care, but instead faced invasive police investigations, with some even separated from their children, until the charges were dropped.

In the coming weeks, Members of the UK Parliament will have the opportunity to vote for Diana Johnson’s amendment (NC1) to the Criminal Justice Bill, which would mean that no one in England and Wales would be criminalised for ending their own pregnancy.

We believe it is never in the public’s interest to prosecute someone for ending their own pregnancy. Please ask your MP to support NC1 and stop sending women to prison for having an abortion.

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Ask your MP to support abortion law reform

If you’re based in England or Wales, please enter your full home address below (not just your postcode) to write to your MP and ask them to support abortion law reform:

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I am writing as a constituent to ask that you support abortion law reform in Parliament by voting for Amendment NC1 when the Crime and Policing Bill returns to the House of Commons.

In recent years, women have faced criminal investigation, prosecution, and prison under Victorian abortion laws, which remain on the statute books to this day. In the past three years, six women have appeared in court charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy. Those investigated include domestic abuse survivors, possible trafficking survivors, and women who have experienced miscarriages and stillbirths. The investigations have turned their lives upside down; even when all charges have been dropped, accused women have been separated from their children and had their names made public in the press or on social media. Some have received death threats.

The Abortion Act 1967 makes abortion legal but only if certain criteria are met. If not, the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 and the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 make it illegal to end a pregnancy – and this has never been overturned. Ironically, in 2019, MPs in Westminster voted to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland, but they have not yet done so for the rest of the UK.

What this means in practice is that if, for example, an abusive partner prevents a woman from getting her abortion through the NHS from a licensed provider, and she purchases pills online, she can be prosecuted for taking those pills. The maximum penalty is life in prison.

Amendment NC1 does not change any other aspect of abortion law, including time limits or regulation. It simply means that the woman herself does not face prosecution. It’s backed by doctors, nurses, royal colleges, abortion providers, and gender-based violence charities. More than 120 MPs from parties including Labour, the Conservatives, the Green party, Liberal Democrats, and Plaid Cymru have already added their names.

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