Think the UK is progressive when it comes to abortion? Think again.
Under the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990), abortions are only considered “legal” up until the 24-week mark. Anyone who terminates a pregnancy after that point can be subjected to a penalty as harsh as a life sentence in prison.
Last June, 44-year-old Carla Foster was sentenced to 28 months in prison after she had an abortion at 32-to-34 weeks. The sentence shocked and outraged many around the country. “This is happening here, not in America, El Salvador or Poland. Here in the UK,” tweeted Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow at the time.
The sentence was later suspended and Foster was released early. As The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) tweeted at the time: “The court of appeal has today recognised that this cruel, antiquated law does not reflect the values of society today. Now is the time to reform abortion law so that no more women are unjustly criminalised for taking desperate actions at a desperate time in their lives.”
And yet, Carla’s case is not an anomaly. There have been approximately 60 criminal enquiries about alleged illegal abortions in England and Wales since 2018, compared with next to none before, according to MSI Reproductive Choices. Why are women facing prison time for accessing reproductive healthcare?
BPAS, the UK’s leading provider of abortion services, has called for MPs to vote in favour of Dame Diana Johnson’s amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, which would ensure that no woman faces prosecution or jail time for ending her pregnancy.
In a statement on its website, BPAS said, “England and Wales have the most severe punishment for women found guilty of an “illegal” abortion in the world – up to life imprisonment. This is worse than countries and states with severe anti-abortion laws, such as Texas, Afghanistan, and South Sudan.
Doctors for Choice UK have also launched a new campaign calling for the decriminalisation of abortion in England and Wales.
“England and Wales have the harshest penalty for illegal abortions in the world – up to life imprisonment,” said Dr Sonia Adesara, an NHS GP and spokesperson for the organisation. “Doctors for Choice is committed to calling for the end of police investigations, prosecutions and threat of prison time for people who end their pregnancies.”
It also comes after the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) published a policy statement last August that also called for the decriminalisation of abortion in England, Scotland and Wales.
Doctors and nurses are taking a stand against Britain’s abortion laws
“This week of action is a call to the public to rally behind Diana Johnson’s amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, which seeks to end the threat of prison time for people who end their own pregnancies,” said Adesara. “We have an opportunity to change the course of history for those seeking to end their pregnancy. The amendment will be voted on towards the end of February. Now is the time to act.”
Why fighting for legal abortion matters
Access to safe, legal abortions is vital — but worryingly, around the world and here in Britain, many seem to be regressing in their views in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the States. As Chloe Laws wrote for GLAMOUR last year: “There’s a sense that the rollback of reproductive rights in the USA has emboldened anti-choice lobbyists in the UK.”