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