A law change aimed at decriminalising abortion in England and Wales was debated in the House of Commons after a string of women have faced prosecution and even jail
Half a dozen women in England and Wales have recently faced prosecution after having an abortion, but after more than a century, this week could see a major change that allows women the right to choose.
MPs debated in the Commons on a law change aimed at decriminalising abortion in England and Wales. While the Abortion Act in 1967 allowed access to abortion, the 1861 law – the Offences Against the Person Act – was not revoked.
It means abortion was illegal, but allowed up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and beyond then if the mother’s life is in danger. Recent changes to the law, introduced in lockdown, have meant that women can access pills to terminate pregnancies under 10 weeks at home through the “pills by post” scheme.
In 2022, the most recent available data, more than 250,000 abortions were reported, the highest figure since records began. However in the last five years, abortion providers have reported 100 requests for medical records from police officers in relation to suspected abortion offences, the BBC reports.
Just last month, Nicola Packer, 45, was cleared by a jury after being accused of having an illegal abortion. In November 2020, when she was 26 weeks pregnant, she took an abortion medicine at home during the coronavirus lockdown, Isleworth Crown Court heard. Ms Packer, then 41, took the medications after they were prescribed over the phone due to lockdown restrictions.
She delivered the baby and took her to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in a backpack the following day. Ms Packer said she hadn’t realised how far along she was in her pregnancy, and expressed her “shock” at being pregnant given her age. She told the jury that if she had known she was more than 10 weeks, she wouldn’t have gone ahead with the medication.
Ms Packer had spent the night of November 7 in the hospital and had initially said she miscarried naturally. She had told two midwives the next day that she had taken abortion pills through the post, received from Marie Stopes, one of the largest providers of contraception and abortions.
While recovering from surgery for a stillbirth and still bleeding, she was arrested at the hospital by police the same day. Prosecutors had picked apart her sex life during the trial, with it taking her four years to clear her name.
Ms Packer is one of six women to be prosecuted for the crime since the end of 2022 under the Offences Against the Person Act, which, since its introduction in 1861, had only been used three times. In June 2023, a mum-of-three was jailed for more than two years for inducing an abortion after the legal limit.
Carla Foster, 45, who became pregnant in 2019, had moved back in with her estranged partner at the start of lockdown whilst carrying another man’s baby. The court heard she had sought to hide her pregnancy, which the judge accepted as “emotional turmoil”. Ms Foster had a remote consultation before being prescribed the medication, and said she wasn’t sure how far along she was.
Stoke Crown Court heard she was between 32-34 weeks when she took the pills. Judge Mr Justice Edward Pepperall said it was a “tragic” case, adding that the defendant, who later pleaded guilty to administering drugs to procure abortion, was “wracked by guilt” and had suffered depression.
Her 28-month sentencing outraged campaigners, with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) saying it was “appalled” by the sentencing based on “archaic law”. In January 2024, Bethany Cox, 22, was found not guilty of carrying out an illegal abortion on herself.
On the eve of her trial, the prosecution dropped the case due to “evidential difficulties”. Nicholas Lumley KC, for Ms Cox, said she had given birth in July 2020 at the end of the coronavirus lockdown.
Whilst “in the throes of grief”, the young woman, from Stockton, had been interviewed by police and was under police investigation for three years before being charged. Mr Lumley said it was “beyond regrettable” that she had suffered so extensively.
In December last year, Sophie Harvey, 25, and her boyfriend Elliot Benham were given community orders after prosecutors accepted she did not illegally abort their baby. Meanwhile another woman, whose identity was protected, had her case dropped, with a judge saying he was “flabbergasted” to see it in court.
Then there are the women whose names didn’t make headlines, including a teenager who was arrested in front of her neighbours after having a late miscarriage, the Guardian reports, and cases of women who have been denied contact with their children whilst being investigated.
Some women and girls who have had terminated pregnancies past the legal cut-off have been vulnerable, including victims of domestic violence. A BPAS spokesperson told The Guardian: “We’re aware of cases where the woman has been investigated, or even imprisoned, and nothing has happened to her abusive partner.”
The harrowing case of Ms Packer put England and Wales’ current abortion laws back into the spotlight, with the trial demonstrating “just how outdated and harmful” current abortion law was, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Dr Ranee Thakar, the college’s president, said: “As a doctor, I am acutely aware of how vital it is that women can access essential healthcare in a safe and supportive environment.
“Restrictive abortion laws in England and Wales nurture an environment of fear, stigmatisation and criminalisation. Abortion reform is urgently needed, and now is the time for change.”
Two Labour MPs, Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy, tabled rival amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. The aim was to prevent women from being investigated, prosecuted, or imprisoned for terminating their own pregnancies.
Ms Antoniazzi has argued that the probes are “dehumanising and prolonged and the women forced to endure them are often extraordinarily vulnerable”. She added: “The reality is that no woman wakes up 24 weeks pregnant or more and suddenly decides to end their own pregnancy outside a hospital or clinic.
“But some women, in desperate circumstances, make choices that many of us would struggle to understand. What they need is compassion and care, not the threat of criminal prosecution.” Meanwhile, Ms Creasy’s rival amendment would position abortion access as a human right.