UK – MP behind abortion bill: My own experience inspires campaign

Tonia Antoniazzi, who has tabled an amendment to decriminalise abortions, said she kept a termination secret as she feared losing her job

Carlos Jasso for The Times, Sanchez Manning, Social Affairs Correspondent
Monday April 20 2026

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi was a student when she had a first abortion and a language teacher at a school when she had her second. In her own words, what she went through was “terrible”.

She felt unable to seek help from her parents and, on her second termination, had to keep the procedure secret from her school employer in case she lost her job. She could only turn to her two brothers for support.

Continued: https://archive.is/yahCj
(https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/mp-abortion-bill-tonia-antoniazzi-crp7hb3kn)

Law, Class and Compassion: Vera Drake and the Lived Reality of Illegal Abortion

13 February 2026
By Natalia Katolik and Somtochukwu Madumelu

On 28 January 2026 Durham CELLS and the Institute for Medical Humanities hosted an ‘Afternoon of Law, Medicine and Popular Culture’. We watched and the discussed the film Vera Drake, with introduction and talk from Dr Samantha Halliday.

The cinematic power of Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake (2004) lies in its commitment to "kitchen sink realism". Rather than treating abortion as a remote legal abstraction, Leigh grounds the narrative in the mundane details of 1950s working-class London. Muted greys, cramped interiors, and lingering domestic shots depict illegality as embedded within ordinary life. Vera Drake offers a compelling reflection on the disjunction between abortion law and the lived experiences of women subject to it.

Continued: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/ethics-law-life-sciences/about-us/blogs/cells-blog/law-class-and-compassion-vera-drake-and-the-lived-reality-of-illegal-abortion/

13.02.2026

Blog

Film, Art, Books

Abortion Act 1967

Crime and Policing bill

UK – Diane Munday obituary

Pioneering abortion campaigner whose beliefs were underpinned by humanism

Penny Warren
Mon 2 Feb 2026

On 27 October the Abortion Act 1967 became law. It was a landmark piece of legislation and the hard-won result of years of campaigning by Diane Munday, who has died aged 94.

However, her glass was only half full. The law applied only to Great Britain, not to Northern Ireland, and it did not give women complete freedom to choose: two doctors were required to authorise the procedure. Speaking about that October night, Munday said: “The act was a compromise. Only when women had the power to decide for themselves would our task be fully done. At 3am we were sitting on the terrace drinking champagne. And I remember saying that it’s too soon to celebrate. We have done only half the job, so let’s drink half glasses of champagne.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/02/diane-munday-obituary

02.02.2026

Abortion Act 1967

Abortion Law Reform Association

Birmingham Pregnancy Advisory Service

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

National Council of Women of Great Britain

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Vera Houghton

Why Are So Many British Women Getting Abortions?

New government figures suggest that, amid a fertility slump, there has been a sharp rise in abortions in the UK. Our reporter speaks to the women who can explain why.

By Kara Kennedy
01.29.26

Gemma is 28, British, and recovering from an abortion she had just over a month ago. She was far enough along—a few days shy of five months—that she had to be admitted to the hospital. She would have preferred to end the pregnancy earlier—but she didn’t know about it, even after getting checked out by a doctor after suffering from fatigue.

“I was still having periods. I wasn’t gaining weight. I was going to the doctor and getting blood tests, and nobody ever told me I was pregnant,” she told me.

Continued: https://www.thefp.com/p/why-are-so-many-british-women-getting

29.01.2026

Commentary

Abortion Act 1967

Ann Furedi

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

hormonal contraceptive

What record abortion numbers reveal about the cost of being a woman in Britain

The majority of people seeking abortions already have children

By Jennifer Savin
16 January 2026

New Department of Health data says the number of abortions taking place in England and Wales is at a record high, with 2023 figures showing 277,970 abortions took place. The year prior, 251,377 abortions were recorded and a decade earlier in 2013, the figure sat at 185,331.

Around half of the women (54%) who had an abortion in 2023 said they already have children and cited the cost of living crisis, along with astronomical childcare fees, as part of the reason as to why they did not want to expand their family.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a70018816/abortion-statistics-uk-2026/

16.01.2026

MSI Reproductive Choices

Pregnant Then Screwed

UK – How Washington Turned NHS Abortion Into A Diplomatic Human Rights Cudgel

26 NOV 2025
Impact International

The decision to classify NHS‑funded abortions as a “Human Rights” violation marks a dramatic shift in how Washington uses its flagship Human Rights reporting to judge allied domestic healthcare systems. Through the annual country report, the US now treats “state‑sponsored” abortion, including routine NHS care in England and Wales, as a breach on par with other alleged abuses, transforming a settled area of UK health Policy into evidence of government wrongdoing. At the heart of this move is an attempt to recast abortion, along with other social questions, as a core Human Rights battleground rather than a matter of domestic legislative compromise.

Continued: https://impactpolicies.org/news/676/how-washington-turned-nhs-abortion-into-a-diplomatic-human-rights-cudgel

26.11.2025

Commentary

Abortion Act 1967

Adam Smith‑Connor

anti-choice protesters

New campaign launched to decriminalise abortion in Scotland

Oct 29, 2025
By Lucy Jackson

CHARITIES and civic groups have launched a new campaign to modernise abortion law in Scotland. The "Lets Change the Act" campaign calls for the full decriminalisation of abortion in Scotland and the replacement of the Abortion Act 1967 with a modern, health-based framework.

The campaign is backed by more than 200 individual members and 30 organisations, including Amnesty Scotland, the Equality Network, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Continued: https://www.thenational.scot/news/25579625.new-campaign-launched-decriminalise-abortion-scotland/

29.10.2025

News

Abortion Act 1967

Amnesty International Scotland

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Scottish Trade Union Congress

UK – Abortion is close to decriminalisation. But how quickly can rights and progress be rolled back?

More than 100 women are believed to have been arrested on suspicion of illegal abortion over the last five years in England and Wales, but a new law will offer greater protections. The Big Issue asks experts if rights could still be under threat

Isabella McRae
13 Oct 2025

Women have been prosecuted for having an abortion for centuries. Even in recent years, in this country, women suspected of an illegal abortion have been arrested straight from the hospital ward, their homes searched and their children taken away. But a new law set to be passed in England and Wales means that abortion is a step closer to decriminalisation.

Abortion was legalised in 1967, meaning women can have an abortion up to 23 weeks and six days of a pregnancy, provided two doctors agree it meets certain criteria. The laws which are currently used to prosecute women in England were created in the Victorian era.

Continued: https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/abortion-decriminalisation-womens-rights-uk/

Decriminalising Abortion in England and Wales

Five Strategic Lessons for Reproductive Freedom

Ruth Fletcher
21 July 2025

On 17 June 2025, British MPs took an important step in decriminalising abortion against a backdrop of rising prosecutions for ‘later’ abortion. Once the amended Crime and Policing Bill becomes law, people who voluntarily end their own pregnancies will be exempt from criminalisation. But, unless a further amendment is made, those good faith actors who provide abortion, or support others in getting access, remain at risk of criminal investigation. From a more holistic decriminalisation perspective, the Bill itself is problematic: it will be responsible for the kind of criminalisation of poverty and restriction of protest rights that makes reproductive life more difficult. Five aspects of the recent legal changes are worth emphasising as lessons for a strategic perspective on defending, and even expanding, reproductive freedom.

Continued: https://verfassungsblog.de/decriminalising-abortion-in-england-and-wales/

UK – We still need to have difficult conversations about abortion

Landmark changes to abortion legislation earlier this week will doubtless spark fiery debates at heatwave barbecues. Here, Claire Cohen explains how Gen Z women can take the sting out of discussions about those who opt to terminate their pregnancies after 24 weeks

Saturday 21 June 2025
Claire Cohen

My mother remembers that, when she was a child, a friendly woman, probably in her thirties, lived next door. One day, that woman was gone. Another neighbour had helped her to carry out a “backstreet abortion” – in the days when terminating a pregnancy was illegal, but coathangers were not – and she’d bled to death in her own home.

I don’t even know her name. But I thought of that poor woman this week when MPs voted overwhelmingly to stop women in England and Wales from being prosecuted for ending a pregnancy outside the law – for instance, after 24 weeks. Thank goodness, I thought, we live in a nation where women no longer have to risk death or imprisonment in desperate situations.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/abortion-decriminalised-24-weeks-shelagh-fogarty-b2774030.html