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/

What is the state of abortion rights across the EU?

Despite 15 countries having taken steps forward since 2021, only five EU countries have fully decriminalised abortion.

By Inês Trindade Pereira & Mert Can Yilmaz, Euronews
Oct 10, 2025

Sweden (94.6%), France (85.2%), and the Netherlands (80.3%) rank best in the European Union for abortion rights, according to the European Abortion Policies Atlas 2025.

The scores awarded to these countries relate to their strong legal protections that fully decriminalise abortion, wide service availability, national health coverage, government-led online information and countering misinformation.

By contrast, Malta, at 3.7%, and Poland, at 18.6%, remain at the bottom of the ranking, with abortion largely criminalised with strict penalties, and access to clinical care restricted.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/10/06/what-is-the-state-of-abortion-rights-across-the-eu

06.10.2025

News

abortion law reform

decriminalisation of abortion

European Abortion Policies Atlas

ADPD calls for decriminalisation of abortion in Malta

As protestors take to the streets of Valletta later on Saturday, ADPD insists woman should not face prison for taking the difficult decision of terminating a pregnancy

27 September 2025
by Karl Azzopardi

ADPD has reiterated its call for the decriminalisation of abortion in Malta. ‘The sooner this is done the better as it serves the purpose of encouraging those women who need help to do so, as a result saving lives,” chairperson Sandra Gauci said on Saturday.

The statement comes as a protest on abortion rights is set to take place later today in Valletta.

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/137253/adpd_calls_for_decriminalisation_of_abortion_in_malta_

28.09.2025

News

decriminalisation of abortion

Malta Voice for Choice

Nigeria – Doctors link 40% of maternal deaths to unsafe abortion

By Sodiq Ojuroungbe
August 19, 2025

Maternal and reproductive health experts have described unsafe abortion as a “silent killer” of women in the country, blaming poverty, ignorance, and Nigeria’s restrictive abortion laws for the growing number of preventable deaths.

The experts lamented that at least 40 per cent of maternal deaths in the country were linked to abortion-related complications, many of which occur outside proper medical facilities.

Speaking exclusively to PUNCH Healthwise, the gynaecologists called for urgent reforms, including the decriminalisation of abortion under specific conditions, expansion of access to family planning services, and the provision of free maternal healthcare.

Continued: https://healthwise.punchng.com/doctors-link-40-of-maternal-deaths-to-unsafe-abortion/

19.08.2025

News

decriminalisation of abortion

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/

Beyond decriminalisation: Why legal change alone won’t guarantee safe abortion in Nigeria

Women Empowering Women Initiative (WEWIN)
July 15, 2025

The conversation around abortion in Nigeria is slowly shifting. In Lagos State, the suspension of the Safe Termination of Pregnancy (STOP) guideline continues to highlight just how contentious and urgent the issue of safe abortion is. Across global platforms, there is growing advocacy for decriminalising abortion to reduce unsafe procedures and maternal deaths. These policy debates and calls for reform are essential, but they are only the beginning.

Decriminalising abortion or adopting progressive guidelines can remove the threat of prosecution. They can provide frameworks for hospitals to offer care without fear of sanctions. But laws on paper do not always translate to safety in practice. Without deliberate efforts to address stigma, health system readiness, community norms, and the broader socio-economic barriers that women face, legal change alone will fall short of ensuring that abortion is truly safe, accessible, and dignified.

Continued: https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/beyond-decriminalisation-why-legal-change-alone-wont-guarantee-safe-abortion-in-nigeria/

15.07.2025

News

abortion stigma

decriminalisation of abortion

Women Empowering Women Initiative

Australia – To put an end to the abortion wars, we need mass struggle

Issue: 187
1st July 2025
Judy McVey

The global surge of attacks on abortion rights has been a wake-up call for pro-choice activists in Australia.1 In June 2022, thousands rallied in solidarity with women in the United States when Roe v Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Many media commentators argued that Australia was different from the US and abortion rights were safe here. After all, between 2002 and 2023, regional governments around the country removed abortion from criminal laws. Decriminalisation reflected community-wide popularity for legal abortion. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Australians believe “abortion should be legal and available in Australia in all circumstances”; anti-abortion sentiment is generally less than 10 percent.2

However, the bigots do not simply acknowledge defeat and disappear. Anti-abortionists inside and outside mainstream parties in Australia were emboldened by the rise of the far right and anti-abortion politics in the US and Europe.

Continued: https://isj.org.uk/abortion-wars-australia/

UK – Yes, Abortion Has Been Decriminalised, But The Law Needs To Go Further

By Nell Frizzell
21 June 2025

Around one in four women in the UK have an abortion during their lifetime. But that doesn’t mean abortion has been legal in this country; it hasn’t. Every person who has had an abortion has stepped into legal waters that are murky, if not outright dangerous. This week’s vote to decriminalise abortion, though the greatest reform to abortion laws in 60 years, still hasn’t legalised it; those one in four women still do not have true control over their bodies.

Under the Offences Against the Person Act, which came into power in 1861 (before women even had the vote, as many commentators have pointed out), as well as the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 (which criminalises later abortions), having or providing an abortion was a crime that could carry a life sentence. A life sentence. Do you ever just get the feeling that you’ve been living in an alternative universe? That black has been pink and water has in fact been solid all along? I do. Reading about the history of abortion law in this country is one the most extravagant exercises in bewilderment I’ve ever undertaken.

Continued: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/abortion-law-change-uk

22.06.2025

Commentary

1967 Abortion Act

decriminalisation of abortion

Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929

Nell Frizzell

Nigel Farage

Offences Against the Person Act 1861

UK – “This is about having control over reproductive rights”

MSI’s deputy medical director on the upcoming vote that could end women being prosecuted for abortions

By Sarah Salkeld
June 15, 2025

Next week, MPs will have the chance to vote on the NC1 amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would prevent women from being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancy. Here, Sarah Salkeld, deputy medical director at MSI Reproductive Choices, discusses current abortion law, the need for reform and why this vote could signal a monumental shift in reproductive care for women.

As told to Susanne Norris
Abortion law is complicated – I can see why a lot of people might be confused about it or feel like they don’t have enough information to hand. Essentially, in England, Scotland and Wales, the Abortion Act of 1967 means that abortion is legal, but you’ve got to meet a specific set of criteria – including two doctors giving consent for the abortion and for women to give certain reasons for wanting one – in order to access it. At MSI, we can provide abortions up to 23 weeks and six days. The law only allows an abortion to take place after this if there is a risk to someone’s life or a very severe foetal abnormality is found.

Continued: https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/abortion-decriminalisation-vote-crime-policing-bill/993811

15.06.2025

Interviews/Podcasts

Abortion Act 1967

decriminalisation of abortion

Infant Life Preservation Act

MSI Reproductive Choices

NC1 amendment

Offences Against the Person Act

prosecuting women for abortion

UK – TfL blocks ads calling on people to lobby MPs to decriminalise abortion

London transport body says allowing Bpas adverts on its network could bring police and City Hall into disrepute

Hannah Al-Othman
Sat 31 May 2025

Transport for London has blocked adverts that urge people to lobby their MPs to vote to decriminalise abortion from running on its network because it claims they could bring the police and City Hall into disrepute.

...The adverts from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) charity, which have been approved by the Advertising Standards Authority, have appeared on display boards across England and Wales. They feature anonymised case studies of women who have been investigated by police, and in some cases prosecuted, after terminations or pregnancy loss.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/31/transport-for-london-tfl-blocks-ads-bpas-decriminalise-abortion

31.05.2025