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/

Nawrocki win is ‘devastating blow’ for abortion rights activists in Poland

Any hopes to liberalize the country’s strict abortion rules are lost as the nationalist candidate secured a narrow win.

June 3, 2025
By Claudia Chiappa

Lawmakers and activists are warning that nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki’s win in the Polish presidential election represents a “defeat” for women’s rights and further threatens abortion access in Poland.

Nawrocki, a self-described football hooligan backed by the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party — and by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration — won Poland’s presidential election last weekend, narrowly beating centrist Rafał Trzaskowski.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/nawrocki-win-is-devastating-blow-for-abortion-rights-activists-in-poland/

‘There’s no other solution’: Polish abortion centre opens in challenge to strict laws

Frustrated by government’s failure to ease rules, an NGO is opening a centre a stone’s throw from parliament in Warsaw

Ashifa Kassam
Fri 7 Mar 2025

They poured on to streets across Poland in their hundreds of thousands, carrying placards reading “The revolution has a uterus” and “My body, my choice”. In late 2023 they helped vote in a prime minister who promised a swift overhaul of the country’s draconian abortion laws.

Now, after more than a year of stalled promises, Polish abortion campaigners are taking matters into their own hands, setting up a pregnancy termination centre on one of the country’s corridors of power.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/07/polish-abortion-centre-opens-strict-laws-warsaw

UN experts urge Poland to acquit abortion rights activist awaiting retrial

Nicole D'Souza | U. Auckland Law School, NZ
March 4, 2025

UN experts on Tuesday urged Poland to acquit Justyna Wydrzyńska, a human rights defender and abortion rights activist previously sentenced to eight months of community service.

Advocating for the protection of human rights defenders such as Wydrzyńska, the experts noted the work of individuals like her “remains one of the few avenues for safe abortion in Poland, where access to services to terminate a pregnancy is virtually non-existent in practice”. The group of UN experts urged Poland “to stop targeting human rights defenders – in particular those who speak out against the country’s restrictive abortion law – and to take positive measures to ensure accessible, safe and legal abortion”. The experts also requested Poland to comply with international obligations and amend legislation to decriminalize abortion.

Continued: https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/03/un-experts-urge-poland-to-acquit-abortion-rights-activist-awaiting-retrial/

04.03.2025

Abortion Dream Team

European Court of Human Rights

Polish activist’s conviction for sending woman abortion pills overturned

Feb 14, 2025
Notes from Poland

Justyna Wydrzyńska, an activist who was convicted two years ago for providing abortion pills to a pregnant woman, has succeeded in having the conviction annulled.

An appeals court found that the presence of the judge who issued the initial verdict – who had been appointed by a judicial body rendered illegitimate due to the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government’s reforms – resulted in the lower court being incorrectly composed when it ruled on the case.

The decision means that the case will now return to that lower court, where Wydrzyńska will face a repeat of the initial trial. Under Poland’s strict abortion laws, helping someone obtain an abortion is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/02/14/polish-activists-conviction-for-sending-woman-abortion-pills-overturned/

14.02.2025

Poland: Unjust conviction of activist accused of aiding an abortion must be overturned

January 30, 2025
Amnesty International

Following today’s Court of Appeal announcement that a verdict in the appeal hearing of Justyna Wydrzyńska, a human rights defender convicted in 2023 for helping a woman in an abusive relationship access a safe abortion, will be handed down on 13 February, Monica Costa Riba, Amnesty International’s Women’s Rights Senior Campaigner, said:

“Justyna Wydrzyńska should have never been prosecuted let alone convicted and no one should be criminalized for helping pregnant people access essential health care.

Continued; https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/poland-unjust-conviction-of-activist-accused-of-aiding-an-abortion-must-be-overturned/

30.01.2025

News

Abortion Dream Team

Amnesty International

A year after Tusk came to power, why is access to safe and legal abortion still a distant dream in Poland?

A year ago, Anna Błuś travelled home to her native Poland to vote in an election whose result she hoped would usher in a change to the country’s near total ban on abortion. What went wrong?

By Anna Błuś, Amnesty International
October 15, 2024

Exactly a year ago on the eve of Poland’s elections, I joined a huge queue snaking around a polling station in Warsaw on a cold autumn day. Despite the chill and the hours spent waiting to vote, the atmosphere was festive. There was a mood of anticipation in the air: a palpable sense that change was coming after eight years of regressive rule by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

As I watched the exit polls in a packed bar later that night, it became clear that this had been an election like no other with a record turnout (74%) and unprecedented numbers of women and young people coming out to vote.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/a-year-after-tusk-came-to-power-why-is-access-to-safe-and-legal-abortion-still-a-distant-dream-in-poland/

Abortion activists deliver invoice to Polish government: you owe us €11.5m

Saturday, April 13, 2024
Women Help Women

Abortion Without Borders has spent more than €11.5m (PLN 49,104,011) in time and money to provide abortion access for Polish residents, without help from the government.

Activists from Abortion Without Borders brought the ‘Polish abortion debt’ to the Sejm (Polish parliament) on Thursday (11 April), presenting an invoice to the government for the costs of time and financial assistance to provide abortion access for Polish residents.

Continued: https://womenhelp.org/en/page/1584/abortion-activists-deliver-invoice-to-polish-government-you-owe-us

Tusk faces a big fight overturning Poland’s abortion ban

The prime minister says easing Poland’s near-total abortion ban is a priority, but he’s facing stiff opposition from within.

FEBRUARY 9, 2024
BY WOJCIECH KOŚĆ

WARSAW — Poland’s new government won power thanks to the votes of millions of women, but it's now split over an issue that garnered their support — easing abortion rules.

The far-right nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government ruled from 2015 until last October and, in alliance with the Roman Catholic Church, espoused toughening Poland's already very restrictive abortion rules.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-tusk-faces-big-fight-overturning-abortion-ban/

Global: People defending abortion rights are being ‘stigmatised, abused, discriminated against, even killed’ – major new report

24 November 2023
Amnesty International

People who are defending the right to have an abortion and those who provide them, and related essential services are being stigmatised, intimidated, attacked and subjected to unjust prosecutions, making this work increasingly difficult and dangerous to carry out, said Amnesty International in a major new report today (24 November).

In the 59-page report, An Unstoppable Movement: A global call to recognise and protect those who defend the right to abortion, reveals how many healthcare workers, activists and advocates around the world face abuse, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment for supporting the right of women, girls and people who can become pregnant to access abortions.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/global-people-defending-abortion-rights-are-being-stigmatised-abused-discriminated