UK lawmakers approve amendment to decriminalize abortions up to nine months

The British parliament took the first step toward decriminalizing late-term abortions in England and Wales on Tuesday.

In a 379-137 vote, the House of Commons approved an amendment to a broader crime bill to prevent women from being prosecuted for having abortions after the legal limit, potentially through birth. The current law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks, except under specific circumstances such as the life of the mother.

Labour Member of Parliament Tonia Antoniazzi, who introduced the amendment, said the change was necessary on behalf of the more than 100 women investigated over the last five years for suspected illegal abortions.

As quoted by the Associated Press, she said, “This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help.” Antoniazzi added, “Just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.”

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Changes in the law implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic now allow UK women to receive abortion pills through the mail for use within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. That has led to several instances in which women were prosecuted for obtaining abortion pills illegally to terminate pregnancies after 24 weeks or more.

One woman, a mother of three, was sentenced to two years in prison for medically inducing an abortion around her eight-month mark in 2023. An appeals court reduced her sentence a month later, and she was released. The judge said that case called for “compassion, not punishment” and there was no useful purpose in jailing her.

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Alithea Williams of the UK Society for the Protection of Unborn Children condemned the vote in a statement.

“We are horrified that MPs have voted for this extreme and barbaric proposal. If this clause becomes law, a woman who aborts her baby at any point in pregnancy, even moments before birth, would not be committing a criminal offence,” Williams said. “In fact, by dismissing the Infant Life Preservation Act intended to provide legal protection to a child during birth, a woman who killed her baby during delivery would not be committing an offence.”

“And this has been pushed by an abortion lobby cynically exploiting a situation that they brought about,” she added. “The cases they use of women being prosecuted for abortion – a number in the single digits – came about because of a policy they championed – sending women abortion pills in the post without in person appointments.”

Another amendment would have prohibited medical professionals from being prosecuted for helping a woman obtain an abortion, but it did not get a vote.

The crime bill must now pass through the House of Commons before proceeding to the House of Lords. It can be delayed there, but not blocked.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Alexa Moutevelis contributed to this report.