1st June 2025: The Equality Party today urged MPs voting on the Crime and Policing Bill to approve an amendment to remove women from the criminal law related to abortion in England and Wales.
This would not change any time limits or other conditions for abortion, but would ensure that no woman can be arrested or charged with a criminal offence for ending her own pregnancy.
Equality Party Leader, Kay Wesley, explained:
“Many people do not realise that, in Britain, having an abortion is still a criminal offence that can result in a life sentence. This is due to an 1861 law that was passed before women had the right to vote, work or be educated, a time when women were legally the property of their fathers and husbands.
“This law is not fit for purpose in 2025. Abortion care should be governed by healthcare standards, and is a matter between a woman and her health professional. It is nothing to do with the police or politicians.”
The 1861 act was repealed for Northern Ireland by Westminster in 2019 and 2020 but remains in place for England, Scotland and Wales.
Women accessing abortion in Great Britain do so under the Abortion Act 1967. But this law did not decriminalise abortion – it made it legal in certain, fixed circumstances. Abortions must be signed off by two doctors, they must take place in a hospital or approved premises, and women must meet one of seven criteria. Any woman who obtains an abortion outside these conditions – for example by ordering pills online – can go to prison.
Wesley continued:
“More than 100 women have been investigated by the police in recent years relating to the antiquated law. Some of them had tragically had miscarriages or traumatic stillbirths, and instead of being provided with healthcare, they were arrested and taken into custody.
“Some were prevented from visiting their GP due to abusive partners, or teenagers afraid of their parents, who ended their own pregnancies with pills from the chemist. The first their families knew of their pregnancy was the police knocking at the door. This is an appalling way for a civilised country to treat vulnerable women who need healthcare.
This must stop now. The Crime and Policing Bill is the perfect opportunity to clarify the law and protect women.”
The amendment has been supported by all major health experts, including the British Medical Association and the Royal Colleges of GPs, Midwives and Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, as well as women’s support organisations like The Fawcett Society, Refuge, Rape Crisis and MumsNet.
Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said,
“Abortion is an essential form of healthcare and should be subject to regulatory and professional standards like other medical procedures, not criminal sanctions.
“Parliamentarians now have an unmissable opportunity to decriminalise abortion, to ensure women can access abortion safely, confidentially and free from the threat of investigation and prosecution.”
Abortion is widely supported in the UK, with 87% of people in support of a woman’s right to choose. (YouGov, 2023). The vast majority of abortions (88%) are under 10 weeks’ gestation and 86% are medical (using pills), according to government figures from 2022.
The Crime and Policing Bill is at the Report Stage in the House of Commons, with its Third Reading expected in the coming weeks. The issue is seen as non-party political, with MPs permitted to vote on their conscience about these matters.
In recent years, abortion rights have been under threat in some countries, notably the United States with the overturning of the Roe vs Wade ruling in 2022, meaning that women no longer have a constitutional right to end a pregnancy. Since then many states have outlawed abortion.
Wesley added:
“The overturning of Roe vs Wade was a disaster for women’s rights in America. We now see the absurd situation where women are having to travel from the US to Mexico as health refugees, to access reproductive healthcare.
“The legal campaigners that helped overturn Roe vs Wade are now active in the UK, and supporting anti-abortion activists here. Together with far-right politicians they are using this emotive issue to erode women’s rights. These people do not care about women, families or children. They are extremists who want to shape British laws to roll-back our human rights, and they must be stopped.
“The Equality Party encourages everyone to write to their member of parliament and support this amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill. MPs should take this opportunity to remove abortion from the criminal law completely, and protect every woman’s right to determine what happens to her own body and access healthcare safely, without fear of prosecution.”
Members of the public can write to their MP via BPAS: https://bpas-campaigns.org/
The Equality Party 