UK Parliament to Vote on Removing Women From Criminal Abortion Law
Tomorrow the Crime and Policing Bill returns to the House of Commons for consideration of the Lords amendments.
Should the two Houses agree on the final text of Clause 208, women will be removed from criminal law in relation to the termination of their own pregnancies in England and Wales.
Women who were previously convicted or cautioned under abortion law will receive pardons and have records expunged.
The 24 week gestational limit will remain in law, only applying to doctors and healthcare providers not the woman herself. Medical professionals still face criminal liability for performing abortions outside of legal requirements.
Criminal liability for coercion and the non-consensual administration of abortion medication remains fully intact.
The amendment requiring in-person consultations was defeated, therefore preserving the pills-by-post telemedicine scheme.
The clause primarily exists to put a stop to exceedingly distressing police investigations and criminal charges faced by women accessing abortions which saw a surge from 2020 onwards, as reported by BBC File on 4.
Proponents of Clause 208 made reference to over fifty countries that have successfully decriminalised women in relation to abortion without negative consequences and confirmed support from all major royal colleges.
The correlation between the pills-by-post scheme and the rise in investigations was disputed, with cases of women being prosecuted predating the scheme's introduction.
“Removing the offence of a woman terminating her own pregnancy, even at full term, would remove the few remaining legal protections for unborn children” stated Baroness Monckton, citing the preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This framing sits in tension with the international human rights frameworks invoked in the same debate.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action explicitly recognises that control over one’s own fertility is foundational to the empowerment of women – a principle arguably incompatible with criminal liability for women acting in relation to their own pregnancies.
Abortion law in England and Wales dates back to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which criminalised the procurement of a miscarriage, and was further shaped by the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929.
It was not until the Abortion Act 1967 that lawful termination became available under specified conditions, with the legal time limit subsequently reduced from 28 to 24 weeks by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
The landscape shifted markedly in 2020 when, under temporary Covid-19 measures, both abortion medications were approved for home use without prior clinical attendance; by 2021, this had become the dominant method, accounting for 52% of all abortions, and was made permanent in March 2022.
Advocates argue the telemedicine model has meaningfully expanded access for women who face practical barriers to in-person care — including those in abusive relationships, those in rural areas, and those with significant caring responsibilities.
Should the two Houses reach agreement tomorrow, Clause 208 will pass into law marking the most significant shift in the criminal framework governing abortion in England and Wales since 1967.
(Source: House of Lords Hansard, Crime and Policing Bill, Report Stage (6th Day), 18 March 2026, hansard.parliament.uk Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2021, updated January 2026, gov.uk Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, RCOG marks historic support from the House of Lords to remove women from the criminal law related to abortion, 18 March 2026, rcog.org.uk Center for Reproductive Rights, The World's Abortion Laws, reproductiverights.org/maps/world-abortion-laws)
