MPs vote to decriminalize abortion, the English way. What will the US say?

UK MPs voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion for women in England and Wales, but they’re wary of the U.S.’s divisive debate.

June 17, 2025
By Dan Bloom

LONDON — U.K. MPs just liberalized a 164-year-old abortion law with typical British understatement. Now, to hope that Donald Trump’s America doesn’t notice.

The House of Commons voted 379-137 Tuesday night to remove criminal sanctions for women having their own abortion in England and Wales, partially unpicking a law passed in 1861.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-abortion-decriminalization-united-states-donald-trump/

Abortion clinic staff feel ‘abandoned’, says charity

14 June 2025

Staff at an abortion clinic feel "abandoned" by police because no-one has been prosecuted following more than 40 reports of alleged criminal damage to their vehicles, a charity has said.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) runs the clinic in Ophir Road, Bournemouth, which anti-abortion protesters had stationed themselves outside of before a council order was implemented in 2022.

The clinic was brought to international attention when US Vice President JD Vance raised concerns over the prosecution of a man who breached a protection zone around it.

Contiuned: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7872evvyeyo.amp

Wales is UK worst for surgical abortions, says charity

June 13, 2025
Kate Morgan, Communities correspondent, BBC Wales News

Wales is the worst part of the UK for providing surgical abortions with many women treated in England, according to a leading healthcare charity.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) said it was "astonishing" Wales was behind Northern Ireland, where abortion was only decriminalised in 2019.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9890ld7dmjo

13.06.2025

News

Bpas

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

MPs set to vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales

June 10, 2025
Brian Wheeler, Nick Triggle

Women would no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales under a proposed shake-up of abortion laws.

MPs are set to get a free vote next week - meaning they will not be told how to vote by their party - on a change to the law.

It comes amid concern more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5v900v1y6o

10.06.2025

News

1967 Abortion Act

abortion law reform

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Nicola Packer

Offences Against the Person Act of 1861

Rachael Clarke

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

UK – Creasy attempt to change abortion law ‘not supported by service providers’

British Pregnancy Advisory Service says NC20 amendment to criminal justice bill ‘not right way’ to overhaul the law

Hannah Al-Othman
Tue 10 Jun 2025

An attempt to change the law on abortion led by the Labour MP Stella Creasy is not supported by “any of the abortion providers in the country”, a leading pro-choice charity has said.

Rachael Clarke, the head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), said Creasy’s NC20 amendment to the criminal justice bill “is not the right way” to overhaul abortion laws.

Bpas is instead backing a separate proposal, NC1, put forward by another Labour backbencher, Tonia Antoniazzi.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/10/creasy-attempt-to-change-abortion-law-not-supported-by-abortion-providers-bpas

Scotland – Revealed: How ‘sinister’ lack of access to surgical abortions puts lives at risk

'They think sending women to England is perfectly reasonable,' say campaigners as lack of abortion care in Scotland drives women south of the border

Greg Barradale
3 Mar 2025

When one 16-year-old girl in Scotland found out she was pregnant at 23 weeks, the “fear and shame” of her situation led her to contemplate suicide. Her family were anti-abortion, so her boyfriend’s mum had to take her to London for treatment at a BPAS clinic.

Another teenager, who discovered she was having a cryptic pregnancy after her contraceptive injection failed, vomited on herself out of shock when told she would have to travel to England to get an abortion. The journey cost her thousands of pounds.

Continued: https://www.bigissue.com/life/health/surgical-abortions-care-scotland-england-women-health/

03.03.2025

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Prayer and prosecutions: the US ‘hate group’ waging war over Britain’s abortion clinic buffer zones

Anti-abortion campaigners cheer as JD Vance brands safe zones an attack on ‘liberties of religious Britons’

Shanti Das
Sun 16 Feb 2025

Rachael Clarke remembers life before buffer zones. Almost every day, the head of staff at the UK’s biggest abortion provider would get emails from staff worried about protesters outside clinics – and women crying in the waiting room.

Some of the protesters had huge placards with graphic images of foetuses. Others held candlelit vigils and said prayers. One scattered baby clothes in the bushes. “We had everything from people telling women that having an abortion was putting their baby in a meat grinder to people following nurses down the road in the dark telling them they were killing babies,” says Clarke.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/16/prayer-and-prosecutions-the-us-hate-group-waging-war-over-britains-abortion-clinic-buffer-zones

Stella Creasy warns UK is seeing weaponisation of abortion like US and whoever disagrees must ‘wake up’

Labour MP speaks amid fears UK could become new battleground for abortion rights, with campaigners pushing for decriminalisation this year but anti-abortionists hitting back from other side

Tara Cobham
Tuesday 28 January 2025

The UK is seeing the “weaponisation of abortion” after anti-abortionists learned from effective tactics in the US over the past decade, a senior Labour backbencher has warned.

Stella Creasy warned she has personally seen the agenda of American anti-abortion groups now being pushed in parliament, citing the example of longtime Donald Trump ally Nigel Farage calling for parliament to debate imposing stricter limits on abortion last year.

Continued: https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/abortion-rights-stella-creasy-trump-farage-b2686637.html

28.01.2025

News

Amnesty International

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

UK – The battle for abortion buffer zones

A 2023 law banning protests around clinics remains unenforced amid dispute over 'silent prayer'

By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
Aug 20, 2024

In the UK, protests outside clinics or hospitals that perform abortions are, theoretically, banned within a 150-metre "buffer zone". But the legislation has yet to be enforced in England and Wales, and draft guidance published by the last government controversially made allowances for silent prayer within the so-called "safe access zones".

Now, the Home Office is considering reviewing the guidance, reported The Daily Telegraph. Ministers will also review a provision which allows for "consensual" communication with those entering or leaving the premises, which protesters have "interpreted" as permission to hand out leaflets or talk to patients. Abortion rights activists and healthcare providers hope the review will result in both activities being banned as part of Labour's commitment to finally enforce the buffer zones.

Continued: https://theweek.com/health/the-battle-for-abortion-buffer-zones

UK – Buffer zones outside abortion clinics should protect women so why are women still being harassed?

Women are still waiting for the implementation of a new law to stop abortion clinic harassment, despite it being passed more than a year ago.

Sunday 18 August 2024
Olivia Petter

On 3 May last year, things were finally looking up for reproductive rights campaigners. After years of relentless pressure from abortion healthcare providers, the government had signed “buffer zones” into law, subsequently making it an offence to influence, obstruct, or harass those seeking terminations within 150 metres of a clinic.

“We were so relieved,” says Nichola Dowell, the clinical services matron at one such clinic, MSI in Camden, London. For years, she has witnessed the distressing impact that anti-abortion campaigners have on patients. “Abortion should be treated as healthcare, and everyone should be able to access it free from harassment.”

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/abortion-buffer-zones-delay-2024-b2596299.html