MPs take historic first step to defend reproductive rights

Today, campaigners won a major step forward for reproductive rights. MPs have drawn a line in the sand, sending a clear message that no-one should be treated as a criminal for making decisions about their own family or their own body.

Tonia Antoniazzi MP’s amendment to the criminal justice bill, backed by the British Medical Association and campaigners including the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, lifts the threat of prosecution from a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy. In a historic shift, it was passed with a majority of 242 votes – the first time parliament has voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in England and Wales.

Nearly 14,000 of our supporters emailed their MPs to demand action on reproductive rights, adding to the wave of pressure that helped make today’s progress possible.

But this is only the first step. As Stella Creasy MP proposed in an amendment backed by many MPs, grassroots campaigners and women, England and Wales must be brought into line with Northern Ireland, which voted to decriminalise abortion completely in 2019. 

Antoniazzi’s amendment would leave both the partners of women and the professionals who help with their healthcare threatened with prosecution under Victorian laws. It offers no protection to people providing advice and assistance remotely. And it does nothing to safeguard buffer zones around clinics that protect people seeking care from harassment and intimidation. 

By embedding abortion care as a human right, Creasy’s amendment would make it impossible for a future government to take away these rights without democratic consent and full legislative process. That’s why we’re backing her as she fights on for full decriminalisation.

Katrina McDonnell, a campaigns manager at Good Law Project, welcomed the result as “an important victory for the sector”, but added that “it’s not enough”.

“Even if this amendment becomes law,” McDonnell said, “medics couldn’t offer the same care as in Northern Ireland without risking jail. Partners and health professionals are still menaced by laws that are hopelessly out of date.

“With Nigel Farage MP riding high in the polls and the far right waging war on reproductive rights all around the world, we need to make sure our right to make decisions about our families and our bodies is enshrined in law.”

The fight is far from over. We’ll keep up the pressure until abortion is fully decriminalised and our rights are written into law – for everyone.