By Amelie Baker
This Thursday the House of Lords voted to approve the amendment to decriminalise abortions across the UK, re-centring women and their right to bodily autonomy in the eyes of the law.
The amendment originally passed through the House of Commons with flying colours last June in a free vote of MPs, with 379 voting in favour, and 137 voting against. The amendment to the crime and policing bill, proposed by Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi, would prevent the prosecution of women across England and Wales who terminate their pregnancies outside of the legal framework. This framework around accessing safe abortion would not change, and doctors who carry out illegal abortions will still be prosecuted. Put simply, it would protect women at perhaps the most vulnerable moment of their lives, providing care and compassion instead of punishment.
The House of Lords have taken this amendment even further and voted to extend the remit of the legislation. Not only would it prevent women being arrested and sentenced for having illegal abortions, but it would also expunge and pardon women who have previously been arrested and/or sentenced under these terms.
The current legislation states that a legal abortion must be taken within a certain time limit and requires the signatures of two doctors. Women who act outside of these parameters currently risk a maximum life prison sentence, with some women being arrested in their hospital beds, adding immeasurable trauma to an already difficult experience. It also leaves a permanent mark on a woman’s record which would show up on future DBS checks, marking that woman for life, and impacting future employability and even travel options.
Evidence found by an FOI request issued by the Guardian to Nottinghamshire and MET police forces shows that, despite the amendment’s success in the House of Commons in 2025, and now the House of Lords, multiple women have been arrested in the past year on the grounds of illegal abortions. In the article, some women tell the Guardian how they are placed under arrest whilst still in the labour ward, and their houses searched. They state a newfound distrust of public services, including both the NHS and police force – services meant to help and protect.
The moments when political and legal institutions appear to side with women are unfortunately few and far between. The social contexts that leave a woman in need of an abortion, especially one outside of the legal framework, merits sympathy and understanding. The fact that a private healthcare decision, often taken because of a lack of options, is construed as evidence of criminal behaviour is a gross misunderstanding. Indeed, it is what one would expect of a 164-year-old Victorian law – a law that belongs in the past, a horror left to the pages of history or the novels of Margaret Atwood. This change is long overdue.
The 19th of March appears to be one of those rare times where our governmental system acts resolutely in women’s favour as sovereign citizens. We deserve bodily autonomy, and our government must deliver.