U.K. lawmakers vote to decriminalize abortion amid concern about the prosecution of women

A Union flag is displayed outside the Houses of Parliament, in London, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

LONDON -- British lawmakers voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion in England and Wales after a lawmaker argued it was cruel to prosecute women for ending a pregnancy.

The House of Commons approved an amendment to a broader crime bill that would prevent women from being criminally punished under an antiquated law.

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour member of Parliament who introduced one of the amendments, said the change was needed because police have investigated more than 100 women for suspected illegal abortions over the past five years, including some who suffered natural miscarriages and stillbirths.

“This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help,” she said. “Just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.”

The amendment passed 379-137. The House of Commons will now need to pass the crime bill, which is expected, before it goes to the House of Lords, where it can be delayed but not blocked.

Under current law, doctors can legally carry out abortions in England, Scotland and Wales up to 24 weeks, and beyond that under special circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is in danger. Abortion in Northern Ireland was decriminalized in 2019.

Changes in the law implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic allow women to receive abortion pills through the mail and terminate their own pregnancies at home within the first 10 weeks.

That has led to a handful of widely publicized cases in which women were prosecuted for illegally obtaining abortion pills and using them to end their own pregnancies after 24 weeks or more.

Anti-abortion groups opposed the measures, arguing it would open the door to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy.

“Unborn babies will have any remaining protection stripped away, and women will be left at the mercy of abusers,” said Alithea Williams, public policy manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, which describes itself as the U.K.’s biggest pro-life campaign group.

The debate came after recent prosecutions have galvanized support to repeal parts of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

In one case, a mother of three was sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2023 for medically inducing an abortion about eight months into her pregnancy.

Carla Foster, 45, was released about a month later by an appeals court that reduced her sentence. Judge Victoria Sharp said that case called for “compassion, not punishment” and there was no useful purpose in jailing her.

Last month, a jury acquitted Nicola Packer on a charge of unlawfully self-administering poison or a noxious thing with intent to procure a miscarriage. Packer, who took abortion medicine when she was about 26 weeks pregnant, testified that she did not know she had been pregnant more than 10 weeks.

Supporters of the bill said it was a landmark reform that would keep women from going to prison for ending their pregnancy.

“At a time when we’re seeing rollbacks on reproductive rights, most notably in the United States, this crucial milestone in the fight for reproductive rights sends a powerful message that our lawmakers are standing up for women,” said Louise McCudden of MSI Reproductive Choices.

A second amendment that would have gone even further than Antoniazzi’s proposal, barring the prosecution of medical professionals and others who help women abort their fetuses, did not get to a vote.

A competing Conservative measure that would have required an in-person appointment for a pregnant woman to get abortion pills was defeated.

By Brian Melley And Danica Kirka