Abortion is becoming a new front in Reform UK’s culture war

Following abortion decriminalisation, analysis from openDemocracy and the Fuller Project reveals the UK far right is pushing anti-abortion talking points into mainstream political debate.

By Sian Norris
May 20, 2026

Data analysed by The Fuller Project and openDemocracy reveal that British far-right political parties and influencers – including Reform UK – are taking inspiration from the United States and seeking to turn abortion into a new front in the culture wars.

At a time when Nigel Farage’s party has made sweeping gains in the local elections, our analysis of almost 80 Reform, Reform-supporting, and far-right X accounts found that between April 2024 and April 2026, mentions of abortion increased by 40% compared to the previous two years. This is despite a new law coming into force at the end of April 2026 which prevents women in England and Wales from facing a criminal investigation for having an abortion, and despite high public support for abortion across the UK.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/aabortion-reform-uk-politics-birth-decriminalization-farage/

UK – MP behind abortion bill: My own experience inspires campaign

Tonia Antoniazzi, who has tabled an amendment to decriminalise abortions, said she kept a termination secret as she feared losing her job

Carlos Jasso for The Times, Sanchez Manning, Social Affairs Correspondent
Monday April 20 2026

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi was a student when she had a first abortion and a language teacher at a school when she had her second. In her own words, what she went through was “terrible”.

She felt unable to seek help from her parents and, on her second termination, had to keep the procedure secret from her school employer in case she lost her job. She could only turn to her two brothers for support.

Continued: https://archive.is/yahCj
(https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/mp-abortion-bill-tonia-antoniazzi-crp7hb3kn)

UK – MPs and peers approve law to pardon women convicted over abortions as far back as 1800s

Law will also expunge police records for women arrested in England and Wales, and stop future prosecutions

Hannah Al-Othman
Fri 17 Apr 2026

Legislation to pardon women who have been convicted of illegal abortions has passed its final parliamentary hurdle, paving the way for a landmark change in the law in England and Wales.

The amendment to the crime and policing bill, which will also expunge the police records of those arrested and investigated over illegal abortions, was considered in the House of Lords during a phase of parliamentary ping-pong, where a bill passes back and forth between the Lords and Commons.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/17/law-pardon-women-convicted-abortions-passes-uk-parliament

17.04.2026

News

1861 Offences against the Person Act

abortion law reform

Crime and Policing bill

The United Kingdom’s Decriminalization of Abortion: What the United States Can Learn from Abortion Criminalization in a Global Context

Rebecca Reingold, Paulina Macías Ortega
March 19, 2026

Yesterday, the United Kingdom voted to decriminalize abortion. In a 185-145 vote, the British House of Lords approved an amendment reforming a Criminal Code provision that regulates abortion in England and Wales. In the face of a recent uptick in prosecutions for miscarriages, stillbirths, and self-managed abortions, lawmakers have undertaken efforts to prevent women from being investigated, arrested, prosecuted, or imprisoned for terminating their own pregnancies.

The United Kingdom’s reform is part of a broader movement away from relying primarily on criminal law to regulate abortion care — a stark contrast to the vast expansion of criminal abortion laws in the U.S. in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

Continued: https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/the-united-kingdoms-decriminalization-of-abortion-what-the-united-states-can-learn-from-abortion-criminalization-in-a-global-context/

19.03.2026

Commentary

1967 Abortion Act

Paulina Macías Ortega

Peers vote to back clause pardoning women convicted over illegal abortions

House of Lords decision welcomed as ‘landmark moment’ after attempt to strike out amendment is defeated

Hannah Al-Othman
Thu 19 Mar 2026

Women who have been convicted, and in some cases jailed, over illegal abortions are set to be pardoned after a historic vote in the House of Lords.

Last June, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside of the legal framework, while keeping the existing framework in place. Doctors and others who act outside of the law could still face the threat of prosecution.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/19/peers-vote-to-back-clause-pardoning-women-convicted-over-abortions

19.03.2026

News

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Heidi Stewart

House of Lords

Louise McCudden

MSI Reproductive Choices

Nikki Packer

pardoning womn for illegal abortion

UK – Lords vote to pardon women convicted of having an illegal abortion

Peers also rejected an attempt to overturn the move by MPs to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancy.

Abbie Llewelyn
Thursday 19 March 2026

The House of Lords has backed a move to pardon women who have been convicted of having an illegal abortion.

The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would also apply to women who were cautioned and would remove the women’s details from police systems, regardless of the outcome of the case.

It comes after a landmark move by MPs in June last year to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mps-blackstone-sarah-mullally-bill-b2941478.html

19.03.2026

Crime and Policing bill

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Tonia Antoniazzi

who chairs the trustees of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

‘Peers must follow MPs and end the cruel criminalisation of women over abortion’

17th March, 2026
Tonia Antoniazzi MP

165 years ago women didn’t have the vote, married women couldn’t own their own property, and marital rape was legal. It’s also how long ago a law was passed that continues to define abortion as a criminal offence in England and Wales.

This law has seen women targeted, punished, imprisoned, dragged from hospital beds to police cells, publicly shamed – mothers torn from their existing children and new babies – following complications in their abortion treatment, miscarriage, stillbirth or premature labour. More than 100 women have been criminally investigated since 2020, six have faced court and one has been sent to prison for abortion offences.

Continued: https://labourlist.org/2026/03/peers-must-follow-mps-and-end-the-cruel-criminalisation-of-women-over-abortion/

17.03.2026

Opinion

abortion law reform

Crime and Policing bill

UK – Decriminalising abortion: how could the House of Lords amend the legislation?

After MPs voted last year to change the law in England and Wales, members of the Lords will now put forward proposed amendments

Hannah Al-Othman
Sun 15 Mar 2026

MPs voted last year to end the criminalisation of women who terminate pregnancies outside the legal framework. It was hailed as the biggest step forward for reproductive rights in England and Wales in six decades.

On Wednesday evening, abortion law will again come under the parliamentary spotlight when members of the House of Lords put forward their proposed amendments to the legislation.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/15/decriminalising-abortion-england-wales-lords-amendments

15.03.2026

News

abortion law reform

Centre for Women’s Justice

Crime and Policing bill

decriminalisation of abortion

UK – Vulnerable women in England still being arrested over suspected illegal abortions

Nottinghamshire and Met police made arrests in past year, despite MPs voting to decriminalise in England and Wales

Hannah Al-Othman, The Guardian
Sun 15 Mar 2026

Vulnerable women in England are still being arrested and facing police investigations over suspected illegal pregnancy terminations, despite parliament backing changes to the law to decriminalise abortion.

Responding to a freedom of information request, Nottinghamshire police and the Metropolitan police confirmed they had arrested women suspected of illegal terminations between June last year and this January.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/15/women-arrested-suspected-illegal-abortion-england-police

15.03.2026

News

arresting women for abortion

Harriet Wistrich

Jonathan Lord

Louise McCudden

MSI Reproductive Choices

National Police Chiefs’ Council

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

UK – ‘Women have to fight for what they want’: UK campaigner’s 60-year unfinished battle for abortion rights

Diane Munday helped secure legal terminations in 1967 and, aged 94, is still calling for wider reproductive rights

Hannah Al-Othman
5 Jan 2026

When the 1967 Abortion Act cleared parliament, marking one of the most significant steps forward for women’s rights in history, Diane Munday was among the campaigners raising a glass of champagne on the terrace of the House of Commons.

“I’m only drinking a half a glass,” she told her colleagues at the time, “because the job is only half done.”

And, she was right. “Fifty years later, women were still going to prison,” says Munday, who co-founded the British Pregnancy Advice Service. She was also a leading member of the Abortion Law Reform Association during the 1960s and 1970s and is a patron of Humanists UK.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/05/uk-campaigner-diane-munday-unfinished-battle-abortion-rights