UK – Parliament takes a historic step toward decriminalising abortion—but the work isn’t over

The recent shake-up of abortion laws in England and Wales marks an important moment for abortion rights, but full decriminalisation remains essential

BMJ 2025; 389 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1348 (Published 30 June 2025)
Jayne Kavanagh, co-chair, Hayley Webb, co-chair

We welcomed the passing of amendment NC1 in parliament on 17 June, which will put a stop to the criminalisation of anyone who ends their own pregnancy in England and Wales. This is a landmark step forward for reproductive rights and justice. In recent years, increasing numbers of women have been investigated and prosecuted under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.1 This Victorian-era law was enacted before women even had the right to vote and carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for “unlawful abortion.”

More than 100 women are believed to have been investigated since 2020 for allegedly ending or attempting to end their pregnancies outside the parameters of the 1967 Abortion Act, which set out legal exemptions for abortion.2 Many endured distressing and intrusive investigations, faced enormous legal costs, and suffered lasting psychological, financial, and reputational harm—repercussions that also deeply affected their families.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/389/bmj.r1348


Leading voices call for decriminalisation of women ending their own pregnancies

The new proposals would bring English and Welsh law in line with Northern Ireland where abortion was fully decriminalised in 2020, and also countries including France and Canada.

By Mollie Malone, home news correspondent
Sunday 12 January 2025
With Video – 3:19 minutes

More than 30 organisations are urging parliament to remove the threat of criminal investigation and prosecution for women who end their own pregnancies in England and Wales.

A joint statement, signed by leading abortion care providers and institutions including the British Medical Association, Women's Aid, and the Royal College of Gynaecologists, asks politicians to relook at the law to prevent women who are suspected of ending their own pregnancy outside of the legal abortion limits, from being criminally pursued.

Continued: https://news.sky.com/story/leading-voices-call-for-the-decriminalisation-of-women-ending-their-own-pregnancies-13287119


UK – ‘Unprecedented’ rise in abortion prosecutions prompts call for law change from medical leaders

Statement from groups including BMA and royal colleges says current law is causing ‘trauma and cruelty’

Shanti Das, The Guardian
Sun 12 Jan 2025

Medical leaders are calling for reform of abortion laws in England and Wales after an “unprecedented” rise in women and girls being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancies.

More than 30 groups – including the British Medical Association, the Faculty of Public Health, the British Society of Abortion Care Providers and the royal colleges of GPs, nurses, psychiatrists, midwives and anaesthetists – issued a joint statement warning that the current legislation is causing “trauma and cruelty” and demanding “immediate action” to safeguard reproductive rights.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/12/unprecedented-rise-in-abortion-prosecutions-prompts-call-for-law-change-from-medical-leaders


Malta – Science should guide all our health policies… including abortion

Science should guide all our health policies... including abortion
Our total abortion ban is no less dangerous or unhinged (or even idiotic, for that matter) than Donald Trump’s notorious recommendation to ‘drink bleach’ as an antidote to COVID-19

Raphael Vassallo
5 May 2020

I guess it had to take a major global health emergency to make us finally understand what should really have been obvious all along. Yes, Dr Fearne: our national policies should be based on scientific advice... and not on popular opinion, electoral concerns, or (still less) the demands of powerful lobby groups.

It is, in fact, thanks to the health authorities’ science-based approach that Malta has so far been spared the nightmare scenarios we have seen unfolding almost everywhere else in the world. As Fearne himself put it last Friday: “We are in today’s positive situation because from the very beginning we abided by what science was telling us, and what the numbers were suggesting.”

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/102116/science_should_guide_all_our_health_policies_including_abortion#.XrLpuMB7lPY


Impossible to possible-abortion provision in Ireland | Dr Mary Favier

Impossible to possible-abortion provision in Ireland | Dr Mary Favier

April 3, 2019

In this 17-minute video, Dr Mary Favier, Cork based GP and founding member of Doctors For Choice, describes how she campaigned for many years to remove the Eighth Amendment as it was harmful to Irish women's health. Dr Favier takes us on a moving journey from Ireland’s past, present, and future showcasing the devastating struggles Irish women have faced in relation to abortions in Ireland in the past and the hope which we live in now as a result of the successful repeal of the eight amendment.

Dr Mary Favier is a specialist in family medicine and is in practice in Cork city. She is a member of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She is a guest teacher on the UCC post graduate general practitioner training scheme. She has been Chair of Education in the ICGP and is currently president elect of the ICGP. She advocated improving clinical care by introducing early medical abortion provision in a primary care setting in Ireland.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5x3lG89ypU&app=desktop&fbclid=IwAR1X5DpcJu_pB2X9n65rWK8cGGQO5YbLA8u_e7yn2d7aC_zD4YWVm4sLEqk