decriminalisation of abortion essay

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Great Britain’s laws need urgent reform to end the criminalisation of abortion

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• Diana Johnson , Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, UK

Abortion laws in England, Scotland, and Wales are not fit for purpose, they must be reformed to prevent further criminalisation of women who seek abortions, writes Diana Johnson

This June, a woman was sentenced to 28 months in jail for ending her own pregnancy using medication during the UK’s first lockdown in 2020. 1

In the UK, where 90% of the population are pro-choice, 2 the use of an archaic Victorian era law—the Offences Against the Person Act 1861—to prosecute a vulnerable woman in 2023 left many asking how this happened and calling for urgent reform to our abortion laws.

The Offences Against the Person Act 3 was passed in a time that afforded women little to no legal rights or autonomy and is the oldest part of our healthcare legislation. In my view, and in those of many of my colleagues across the House of Commons, it is totally unfit for purpose.

I’ve raised this in parliament numerous times. Most recently in 2018 when I introduced a private member’s bill to decriminalise abortion up to 24 weeks. The bill was supported by 208 votes to 123, but unfortunately we ran out of parliamentary time to take it any further.

I requested, without success, for the Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk to make a statement in light of the ruling on the use of section 58 of the 1861 act—the clause that makes it illegal to procure your own miscarriage. I also put on record my support for a statement made by leading medical bodies, including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives. They raise concerns about the chilling effect of the current legal position, what they deem to be an inappropriate custodial sentence, and their call for reform of our antiquated abortion laws.

Clearly the government is not going to be proactive or bring forward plans to remove women and their doctors from the criminal justice system on this issue. This responsibility continues to fall to backbenchers such as me to fight hard to put this on the political agenda and to prevent the cruel and unnecessary criminalisation of women who choose to end their own pregnancies.

It is important to note that decriminalisation does not mean deregulation of abortion care, or the removal of legal time limits. Over the past week there has been a swathe of misrepresentation by anti-abortion lobby groups online and in the media about what a reform on these laws would mean.

In reality, a reform would simply bring the law in England, Scotland, and Wales in line with that of Northern Ireland. Since the Westminster led reform of 2019, the provisions of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act no longer apply in Northern Ireland and there is a moratorium on abortion related criminal prosecutions. It cannot be right that women in one part of the UK are treated differently from women in other parts of the UK in relation to the criminal law.

Great Britain has some of the most draconian abortion laws in the world. Our laws fall far short of the protections afforded to women in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, and even traditionally conservative South American countries such as Colombia and Argentina. As my MP colleague Ben Bradshaw aptly asked the justice minister—how can it be possible that Roman Catholic Spain and Italy, home to the Vatican, have decriminalised abortion but we have not?

This is the reality faced by women and healthcare professionals in relation to abortion healthcare in England, Scotland, and Wales today. This is happening against the backdrop of an uptick in investigations and arrests of women by police over possible “illegal” abortions. 4

Much like the woman who was sentenced to 28 months in prison, most women being investigated by police are post-24 weeks of gestation and have been reported by clinical staff in hospitals that they attend after experiencing complications. The cases are wide ranging—from a woman who was kept in custody after a stillbirth 5 to a 15 year old adolescent taking her GCSEs while accused of murder. 6 We cannot allow this to go unchallenged.

I will be doing everything I can with colleagues from across the political spectrum in Westminster to reform the law and decriminalise abortion across England, Scotland, and Wales. It is high time that this country establishes a new regulatory regimen for abortion that does not involve putting women in prison for making choices about their own bodies. Abortion is a basic healthcare right that should not be criminalised.

Competing interests: None declared

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

• ↵ Thomas T. Outrage at jail sentence for woman who took abortion pills later than UK limit. Guardian . 12 June 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/12/woman-in-uk-jailed-for-28-months-over-taking-abortion-pills-after-legal-time-limit
• ↵ Reproductive Choices MSI. Press release: New research reveals UK identify as pro-choice. 25 February 2020 https://www.msichoices.org/news-and-insights/news/2020/2/press-release-new-research-reveals-uk-identify-as-pro-choice/
• ↵ UK government. Offences against the Person Act 1861. legislation.gov.uk . https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/24-25/100/contents
• ↵ https://images.bpas-campaigns.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/15141818/15.07.22-letter-to-DPP-Max-Hill-QC.pdf
• ↵ Oppenheim M. Woman kept in police cell for 36 hours after stillbirth due to suspicions she had ‘illegal abortion’. Independent 5 July 2022. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/woman-police-custody-stillborn-birth-b2111991.html
• ↵ Das S. Women accused of illegal abortions in England and Wales after miscarriages and stillbirths. Observer 2 July 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/02/women-accused-of-abortions-in-england-and-wales-after-miscarriages-and-stillbirths