The House of Lords voted on March 18 to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies up until the moment of birth. However, the House of Lords did not vote to legalise abortion until birth, but rather to keep an amendment that would remove women who choose to have abortions outside of the legal framework from criminal liability. The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would decriminalise women ending their own pregnancies while keeping the broader legal framework of the 1967 Abortion Act in place.
The amendment would pardon women who have been convicted or jailed over abortions outside the legal framework. It would also end active police investigations into suspected illegal abortions. The amendment would expunge the records of investigations, arrests, and charges of women under abortion law, whether or not they were found guilty.
The House of Lords rejected an attempt to remove the amendment by 185 votes to 148. The amendment was originally tabled by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi and attached to the Crime and Policing Bill after being debated for just 46 minutes in the Commons. The Commons voted in favor of the amendment last year with 379 MPs voting in favor and 137 against.
I want women to have choice, I think it's very, very important, but I do think especially as conservatives we are the only ones who will say this is where we should draw the line, we think the line should be here.
More than 100 women have faced criminal investigations under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act in recent years. The 1967 Abortion Act makes abortion legal in the UK up to a 24-week limit, with exceptions beyond that for severe fetal abnormality or grave risk to the mother's life.
Doctors or others could still face legal consequences if abortions are carried out outside the conditions set by current law, even if the women involved will not be legally liable. The 'pills by post' scheme, introduced during the pandemic and made permanent in 2022, allows women to access abortion pills without an in-person consultation. Peers rejected a bid to make it mandatory for a pregnant woman to have an in-person consultation before being prescribed medicine for termination at home.
More than 1,000 doctors and medical professionals urged peers to oppose plans to decriminalise abortion 'up to birth' ahead of the House of Lords vote. Kemi Badenoch criticised the vote to allow women to legally terminate their babies up to birth as 'not right'. Reform UK vowed to reverse the change to abortion law immediately upon entering government.
The amendment will become law when the Crime and Policing Bill gains royal assent next month.