The Parliament of the United Kingdom is about to decriminalize abortion in England and Wales as the amendment of the crime bill is easily passed

London – British legislators voted on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion in England and Wales after a legislator argued that it was cruel to prosecute women for ending a pregnancy. The Chamber of the Commons approved an amendment to a broader crime bill that would prevent women from being criminally punished under an outdated law.

Tonia Antoniazzi, a member of the Parliament of the Labor Party that introduced one of the amendments, said that the change was necessary because the police have investigated more than 100 women for alleged illegal abortions in the last five years, including some who suffered natural abortions and natural calluses.

“This legislation will only bring women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and need our help,” he said. “What public interest is serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and has to end.”

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The amendment approved 379-137. The House of Commons will now need to approve the Project of Crime, which is expected, before going to the Chamber of Lores, where it can be delayed but not blocking.

According to current law, doctors can carry out abortions legally in England, Scotland and Wales up to 24 weeks, and beyond that in special circumstances, such as when the mother’s life is in danger. Abortion in Northern Ireland was decriminalized in 2019. There is no specific law in Scotland that produces abortions, and the country is generally considered more indulgent in its approach to enforce other laws that could be applied in cases of abortion, although rights defenders continue to request a national law specifically decriminalizing the act.

The changes in the law implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic allow women to receive abortive pills by mail and finish their own pregnancies at home within the first 10 weeks in England and Wales. That has led to a handful of widely publicized cases in which women were processed to obtain abortion pills and use them to finish their own pregnancies after 24 weeks or more.

The anti -abortion groups opposed the measures, arguing that it would open the door to abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

“Not born babies will have any remaining protection stripped, and women will remain at the mercy of the abusers,” said Alithea Williams, public policy manager of the Society for the protection of unborn children, which describes themselves as the largest pro-life campaign group in the United Kingdom.

The debate occurred after recent prosecutions have galvanized support to repeal parts of the crimes of 1861 against the Law of Persons.

In one case, a mother of three children was sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2023 for medically inducing an abortion about eight months after her pregnancy.

Carla Foster, 45, was released approximately one month after an appeal court that reduced her sentence. Judge Victoria Sharp said the case requested “compassion, not punishment” and that there was no useful purpose to imprison her.

Last month, a jury acquitted Nicola Packer for an illegally self -administered poison or something harmful with the intention of obtaining a spontaneous abortion. Packer, who took abortion medications when he was about 26 weeks pregnant, testified that he didn’t know that he had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks.

The supporters of the bill said it was a historical reform that would prevent women from going to prison for ending their pregnancy.

“At a time when we are seeing reversions about reproductive rights, especially in the United States, this crucial milestone in the struggle for reproductive rights sends a powerful message that our legislators are defending women,” said Louise McCudden of MSI’s reproductive elections.

A second amendment that would have gone even beyond the proposal of Antoniazzi, except for the prosecution of medical professionals and other people who help women abort their fetuses, did not vote.

A competitive conservative measure was defeated that would have required an appointment in person for a pregnant woman to obtain abortion pills.

• Legislators
• Great Britain
• Abortion
• United Kingdom