UK: MPs win right to challenge Victorian law criminalising abortion

MPs win right to challenge Victorian law criminalising abortion

Offences Against the Person Act 1861 makes a woman’s decision to terminate her own pregnancy punishable by life in prison

Sarah Boseley Health editor
Monday 13 March 2017

MPs have won the right to introduce a bill to parliament which would decriminalise abortion for the first time by repealing a law that dates back to Victorian times.

A ten-minute rule bill introduced by Diana Johnson, the Labour MP for Hull North, sought permission of the House to change two sections of a law passed in 1861, before women had the vote. It succeeded by 170 votes to 142, a margin of 32.

Continued at source: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/13/mps-win-right-to-challenge-victorian-law-criminalising-abortion