Ask your MP to support abortion law reform | Stop sending women to prison for having an abortion

Ask your MP to support abortion law reform

If you’re based in England or Wales, please write to your local MP and ask them to support Diana Johnson’s amendment, as an important step towards reforming abortion law across the UK:

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Subject:

When the Criminal Justice Bill returns to the House of Commons on 4th June, if the following amendments are moved to a vote, I am asking that you vote: 
•	For amendment NC1
•	Against NC15
•	Against NC41
•	Against NC115

Vote for amendment NC1

Abortion is still criminalised in England and Wales unless very specific conditions are met. Yet Westminster MPs voted to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland back in 2019. Under the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 and the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929, women in England and Wales can face prosecution, even prison, for ending their own pregnancies in certain circumstances, which in Northern Ireland would not be a crime.

These laws have real consequences. In recent years, there has been an alarming increase in women investigated following unexplained pregnancy loss. The women investigated include potential trafficking victims, domestic abuse survivors, and women who have had unexpected miscarriages. One woman was jailed. And even when charges are dropped, the investigation itself can be violating and traumatic. The most intimate details of their personal lives have been interrogated and sometimes made public to neighbours, friends, family, and even the media. 
 
If passed, this amendment would mean that no-one faces prosecution for ending their own pregnancy, without changing any other aspect of abortion law, including the legal time limit for provision. NC1 is the only amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that is guaranteed to stop the investigations and prosecutions of vulnerable women. This amendment is backed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, leading abortion providers, and gender-based violence charities including Karma Nirvana, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, and Refuge.

Amendment NC15

Amendment NC15 was tabled by an anti-abortion MP and is backed by anti-choice groups. If passed, NC15 would reduce the time limit from 24 weeks’ gestation to 22 weeks. This would deny abortion access to around 1,500 women a year, many of them vulnerable. There is no clinical basis for this amendment and none of the leading medical bodies support reducing the time limit.

Abortion over 22 weeks is rare, with only 1% of abortions in England and Wales taking place after 20 weeks. However, many of those impacted most by this amendment are vulnerable. Common reasons for accessing abortion at or beyond 22 weeks are foetal anomalies (often not detected until 21 weeks or later, and some of which can be life-threatening), domestic abuse, early signs of pregnancy being missed (common in young women and girls who have been assaulted), and other access problems like physical or mental disabilities. Reducing the time limit would represent a major blow for reproductive rights, for gender equality, and for women everywhere.

Amendment NC41

Amendment NC41, tabled by an anti-abortion MP, would make it illegal for doctors to provide an abortion beyond the usual time limit where a foetal diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome is the “sole reason” for deducing that there is a “serious risk” of disability. This reduction in the legal time limit would restrict reproductive healthcare access for women who are making very personal, sometimes heartbreaking decisions. A diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome may be one factor in a woman’s decision to request an abortion. For example, the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth is ten times higher in pregnancies with a foetal Down’s Syndrome diagnosis. This amendment would put doctors in the awful position of determining whether a woman’s decision to request an abortion meets the legal criteria. Doctors need to be able to prioritise the needs of the individuals they treat, without politicians placing simplistic restrictions on very complex decisions.

Charity Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) have published quotes on their website from women who have needed to terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks. Please do not vote on amendment NC41 without reading their words:

“Forcing us to make a decision before the full consequences had been discovered and had been explained by both our obstetrician and a paediatrician seems quite frankly ridiculous and unnecessary. It is a hard enough decision to make without any added time constraints.”

Amendment NC115

Amendment NC115 would make Early Medical Abortion at home (telemedicine) illegal in England and Wales, overturning the vote in Parliament, which made it permanently legal in 2022. This would go against all clinical guidance and evidence – and would ignore pleas from gender-based violence charities like Rape Crisis England and Wales and Karma Nirvana who have briefed MPs about the importance of telemedicine for domestic abuse survivors.

Making telemedicine illegal would force every single person accessing abortion to attend a clinic in person, regardless of preferences, clinical need, or personal safety. Banning women from taking their abortion pills at home or having remote consultations would have a particularly big impact on those who struggle to, or indeed cannot safely attend appointments in person. That includes those in abusive relationships, those with caring responsibilities, and those without transport.

Whatever you feel about abortion, it cannot be right that we threaten vulnerable women with prison or cut off access to safe, effective medical care for ideological reasons.

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