MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales so that women cannot be prosecuted for terminating their pregnancy at any stage.
The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill passed by 379 yes votes to 137 no votes, making it the biggest shakeup to reproductive rights in almost 60 years.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who tabled the so-called “New Clause One” (NC1), said it would remove women from the criminal justice system in relation to their own pregnancies, ensuring they could not face investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment.
She said the current “Victorian” laws had been used against vulnerable women, citing cases such as Nicola Packer, who was arrested and tried after she was suspected of having an illegal abortion. She was found not guilty in May.
“Nicola’s story is deplorable, but there are many others,” Ms Antoniazzi said.
Abortion in England and Wales is currently a criminal offence but it is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time.
It is also legal to take prescribed medication at home if a woman is less than 10 weeks pregnant.
Ms Antoniazzi said NC1 “is a narrow, targeted measure” that won’t change how abortion services are provided or the rules under the 1967 Abortion Act.
Pro-choice campaigners demonstrating for decriminalising abortion in the UK
She said: “The 24 limit remains. Abortions still require the approval of signatures of two doctors, and women would still have to meet the grounds laid out in the Act.”
That means that healthcare professionals “acting outside the law and abusive partners using violence or poisoning to end a pregnancy would still be criminalised, as they are now”, she said.
“This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help.
“As I have said it before, and I will say it again, just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.”
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The change will not come into effect immediately as it has been added to the Crime and Policing Bill, which is still making its way through parliament.
A separate amendment was also put forward by Labour MP Stella Creasy and went further by not only decriminalising abortion but “locking in” the right of someone to have one and protecting those who help them.
Hers was not voted on because Ms Antoniazzi’s passed, as expected.
Conservative MP and Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh, speaking against both amendments, described them as “not pro-woman” and argued they “would introduce sex-selective abortion”.
MPs were given a free vote on the amendment, as it typically the case with matters of conscience.
A breakdown of the vote shows the measure was passed overwhelmingly by Labour and Lib Dem MPs.
Just eight Conservative MPs voted in favour of the amendment while all of Reform UK MPs opposed it, although leader Nigel Farage abstained.
Sir Keir Starmer was not present as he is in Canada for the G7, but he said earlier today that his “longstanding in-principle position is that women have the right to a safe and legal abortion”.
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The issue of women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions has been in the spotlight recently due to a number of high profile cases.
Ms Packer was cleared by a jury last month after taking prescribed abortion medicine at home when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks.
At her trial, which followed more than four years of police investigation, she said she didn’t realise she was so far along and she would never had taken the medication had she known.
In the Commons, Ms Antoniazzi cited the case of a young mother who was jailed for two years after she was forced to take illegal abortion medication by her abusive partner, but he was never investigated.
In another case, a woman gave birth prematurely and after she called an ambulance, seven police officers arrived to “search the bins” . She was denied contact with the baby while it was in intensive care and tested negative for abortion medication – but remained under investigation for a year.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said tonight’s vote was a “landmark moment for women’s right”.
But on the other side of the debate, The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said it was “horrified” by the result as it meant that “a woman who aborts her baby at any point in pregnancy, even moments before birth, would not be committing a criminal offence”.
