abortion is technically a criminal offence in england and wales – here's what you can do about it
on what it was like to have an abortion, and why some women are currently facing prosecution and life sentences for abortion in the UK right now
At the age of 23, eight years ago, I sat in a doctor’s office and said, ‘Hello. I’m pregnant. And I don’t want to be.’ As the words left my mouth, I’d never been so certain. It was simple. At that moment in time, I did not want to be a parent. It was just not the right time.
I’d done everything ‘right’. I’d been on the pill since 16. I’d taken just-to-be-sure pregnancy tests every other month. But because I’d been continuously taking the pill with no breaks (as many of us do over summer) – I didn’t realise I was pregnant for three months, until I started to feel unwell after a work charity fundraising action-packed weekend away. I took my routine it’s-probably-all-fine pregnancy test, convinced that there was no way I could be. But I was.
I was in a long-term relationship at the time, and besides my then-boyfriend, I only told one other person. She was a work friend who’d noticed I wasn’t my usual sparkly self (understatement of the year, most likely), so she took me for a walk and asked me if I was okay. Sobbing on a park bench outside work, I told her that no, I wasn’t okay. I was pregnant, I needed an abortion and I felt ashamed. It turned out that, like me, she’d been through the exact same situation at a similar point in her life. She’d had an abortion, too. I couldn’t believe it. The one person I’d told had also experienced this. I wasn’t alone, and it was going to be okay.
Her support was so valuable to me, that I now make sure I openly talk about my own experience in case I need to be that friend for someone else (which I have been on several occasions). My story isn’t uncommon. Just like contraception is taken to prevent a pregnancy, abortion is a commonly used method of preventing the birth of a child – for a variety of reasons. And yet it’s still such a taboo subject, which means we’re conditioned to think that it only happens to those of us who are reckless or have endured extreme circumstances (whether that’s suffering medical complications, or enduring rape). You never consider that you might need one yourself. Until you do. And when you do, you shouldn’t need an exceptional or an extreme reason to have an abortion. Sometimes, you just don’t want a baby. And you shouldn’t have to justify that.
Throughout life, it’s drummed into us women that must do our best not to get accidentally pregnant. It’s us women who have to spend our days and energy navigating calendars and trackers, and contending with added hormones via pills and coils, plus dealing with all the side effects that come with using them. It’s always ‘women, don’t get pregnant’ and never ‘men, don’t accidentally impregnate’. And then, should that all prevention fail (as it often does) – it’s women who must put their bodies through an abortion (and in many cases, alone).
Today in England and Wales, abortion is legal. It was legalised under the Abortion Act 1967, which allows registered medical practitioners to perform abortions – as long as two doctors give permission, as long as the abortion takes place within 24 weeks of the pregnancy (though abortions can be performed after this time if the mother's life is at risk, or if there is a severe fetal abnormality), and as long as the abortion meets one of the grounds in law.
But if you buy abortion pills on the internet to end your own pregnancy, you are committing a crime. And any woman who undergoes an abortion without the approval of two doctors, or without the exceptions outlined in the law, can face prosecution and a life sentence in prison. Yes, really.
According to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), in the last few years, more than 100 women in England and Wales have been investigated by the police on suspicion of breaking abortion law to end their own pregnancy. This includes women who experienced a miscarriage or a stillbirth. According to BPAS, these women have been reported by their medical team, arrested, taken from their hospital beds to police cells, interrogated without access to medical care, and even separated from their children. One woman even ended up in jail.
But it’s not criminalisation that women need, it’s compassion and support. And this week, Cosmopolitan magazine has joined forces with the BPAS to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales.
Together, they’re campaigning to make sure that no more women are arrested under abortion law. They’re working with Tonia Antoniazzi, a Welsh Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gower since 2017, and a few other MPs too, to try and get enough support to change the Crime and Policing Bill that’s being passed through parliament this year.
The proposed change is this:
For the purposes of the law related to abortion, including sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy.
This amendment would not change the way that abortion is provided in England and Wales. It would not change the time limit. It would not change the requirement for two doctors to sign off on an abortion. It would not change the grounds a woman must meet. It would not change the law on sex selective abortion. It would not change the laws which criminalise violent partners who try to end a pregnancy without consent.
All that this change would do is make sure that no more women are arrested under abortion law, and you can help by spending ten seconds (yes, really) of your time emailing your MP, asking them to back abortion law reform.
One in three British women will have an abortion in their lifetime. And the access we have here in the UK really is great. When I had my abortion, I felt so looked after by every person I encountered during the whole process. Both emotionally and medically, I couldn’t have asked for more.
But abortion is healthcare, and it should build on our existing rights. A woman should have the right to make the deeply personal decision, that is having an abortion, herself, without the fear of persecution and prosecution. All people who can become pregnant, no matter how they identify, should be able to access safe abortion care – free from the threat of the criminal law.
It takes ten seconds to email your MP. And this is because BPAS have created this incredible template here, which is automatically sent to your local MP once you’ve added in your postcode and your name. It really is that simple.
I would be so grateful if you, a person who likely knows at least one woman, would send this one simple email, to support the reform of abortion law.
On weeks like this one, when the topic of abortion hits the news, my social media feeds are flooded with anger, horror and outrage.
But this energy and outrage overwhelmingly comes from women. Women who amplify the stories of others. Women who share the facts. Women who bravely tell their own abortion stories. Women who share these things, asking for others to join them in recognising just how essential this human right is to our lives.
Every time abortion hits the news, I notice that men are, on the whole, noticeably quiet. When the Supreme Court of Justice overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, I saw posts that said, ‘When the penalty for aborting after rape is more severe than the penalty for rape, that’s when you know it’s a war on women’, and, ‘Being a mother should be a choice’. All of these posts came from women.
But given that it always requires sperm for a pregnancy to occur in the first place, it always makes me wonder: why aren't we seeing men speak out about their shared abortion stories too? Where are all the men in this conversation in general? Where is their outrage? Why can’t I feel their anger alongside mine?
So back in 2022, I asked them. For Cosmopolitan, I (along with Features Editor, Jennifer Savin) asked 11 men about their experiences of abortion, and why they felt that the overturning of Roe vs Wade was so disastrous for everyone. (The article has since been updated in line with this current campaign.) Among these men were my husband, brother and father, and they all shared their views on the benefits of everyone having autonomy over their reproductive rights.
When I initially asked these men why they hadn’t shared anything, it transpired that many of them didn’t know what they could say or do – or whether their voice would add to the conversation in a helpful way.
But writing to your MP is a way you can help. When women are sharing their stories, urging you to write to your MP, asking you to donate to valuable organisations, asking you to re-share stories and resources, asking you to amplifying their voices and asking you to do the work to educate yourself as to what all of this means – it really does matter that you do it.
You might not think it makes a difference, but using your voice to amplify those other voices is one of the most valuable things you can do. It’s no secret that it’s men who still hold greater power in this world in so many ways – and so these small things that have big impact are a great way of using that privilege, to help women get over a hurdle (that affects all of us) for good.
You can read more on this from Cosmopolitan here:
Thanks for this piece. As a father with a daughter it was an important thing for me to read. I will support her decision if she ever finds herself faced with a similar situation. I read the Cosmopolitan article and your brother Rhys gets right to the heart of the matter when it comes to the end of Roe v. Wade. This is about men having control over others, specifically white men who claim to be Christian, even more specifically, wealthy white men. There's nothing Christian about it. It's dressed up as a moral issue, and for some they may think that's true, but at heart it's about control and nothing more. As an American man I am angry at how my fellow voters turned their backs on the promise of this nation and any progress we've made, and I will continue to use my vote to make "Land of the Free" a reality rather than an increasingly distant dream.
>This amendment would not change the way that abortion is provided in England and Wales. It would not change the time limit. It would not change the requirement for two doctors to sign off on an abortion. It would not change the grounds a woman must meet.
In other words, the law in England would STILL be significantly more restrictive than it's been in Canada without issue since the 1980s.