On Tuesday, the British lawmakers voted to decriminalise abortion for women in England and Wales, a decision that will set the country on a diverging path from that of the United States. The emotive social issue of abortion is part of a bigger debate in the global north. With this decision, women will be safe from prosecution if they decide to terminate pregnancies that are later than 24 weeks, the current limit. However, medical professionals who aid the process can still be prosecuted.

By a vote count of 370–137, the British Parliament approved the amendment to a bill that would change the Victorian-era law that governs abortion in the country. This amendment comes at a time of intense debate over abortion in the United States, where the Supreme Court has already overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 and shifted the responsibility to the 50 states for legislating their own laws.

Many surveys, like that conducted by the agency YouGov, suggest that a vast majority of the British population say that they believe women should have the right to an abortion. But currently, having or providing an abortion remains a crime under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. The act can also land a person into a life sentence, theoretically.

Abortion Act So Far

However, the Abortion Act of 1967 made it legal to have an abortion in England, Scotland, and Wales initially up to the 28th week of pregnancy. This period was later reduced to 24 weeks in 1990.

For the abortion to take place, certain conditions must be met, like two doctors must authorise the decision and continuing the pregnancy must involve risk to a woman’s mental and physical health. An abortion after 24 weeks is allowed on the condition that there is a risk to the mother’s life or grave, permanent injury to her health or a substantial risk of serious fetal anomaly.

The new amendment was proposed by a lawmaker from the governing Labour Party, Tonia Antoniazzi. This law will not repeal the existing criminal law, but aims to prevent women from being investigated, arrested, prosecuted, or imprisoned for terminating their own pregnancies. Tonia argues that those investigated can be victims of domestic abuse or sexual exploitation, or women who gave birth prematurely. But another amendment that would have required a pregnant woman to have an in-person consultation with a medic before ingesting prescribed pills to terminate pregnancy was defeated.

Tonia’s amendment was supported by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. All three said in a joint statement that the decriminalisation of abortion would give women in England and Wales the same protection from prosecution available to women in Northern Ireland, France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.