Abortion Isn't Just 'A Women's Issue' - The Rise In Prosecutions Must Be Urgently Addressed
Content warning: This story contains discussion of baby loss
A Gloucestershire teenager gives birth to a stillborn baby. She is vulnerable and scared, she hadn’t planned to get pregnant, wasn’t prepared to be a mother. In the weeks and months that follow, she tries to get on with her life, to recover from the loss – but three months later, she is arrested in the middle of the night, and held in custody for 19 hours on suspicion of ending her own pregnancy. She is sent home but the police continue to investigate her. She is called in for questioning multiple times. The accusations hang over her, as she transitions from a teenager to an adult. Six full years later, she is on trial, facing jail time.
She goes to and from the courtroom with her hood up, shielding her face, as reporters gather around her, with their cameras and microphones. Her name appears on the news. When details of the birth are discussed in court, she is distraught. She and her partner plead guilty to buying abortion medication, or to a 'conspiracy to procure a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage' – but they deny that she ever took them.
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She is sentenced to a community order and the Crown Prosecution Service eventually decides not to pursue other charges. Her life has been upended, first by the stillbirth, then by the investigation and trial.
To many onlookers, it seems bizarrely cruel: this is England, where abortion medication is legal, where vulnerable teenagers who experience stillbirth should be looked after, not investigated over the course of six years, and threatened with imprisonment. To experts, however, this is becoming a familiar ordeal.
This month, medical and legal experts from more than 30 organisations came together to highlight the 'unprecedented' surge in women and girls facing 'traumatic and prolonged criminal investigations following pregnancy loss and abortion'.
Over the past two years, six women, including the woman in the example above, have appeared in court charged with ending their own pregnancy. Prior to this, there were only three reported convictions of an illegal abortion since the current law was introduced in 1861, the experts pointed out in an open letter. Led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), the group is calling for a decriminalisation of abortion.
To some, the fact that abortion is still subject to criminal sanctions may be surprising, but the Abortion Act of 1967 didn’t decriminalise abortion in Great Britain – instead, it made it legal in certain circumstances, stipulating that two doctors approve the decision and that at least one of seven legal criteria is met. And, as Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the RCOG, explains, the 1967 law is underpinned by an even older criminal law, which dates back to 1861.
This Victorian-era law 'is being used today to prosecute women in extremely difficult circumstances who have presented to hospital seeking medical help and are suspected of attempting to end their own pregnancy', she points out.
The RCOG is concerned, she says, that the fear of being investigated by the police may deter women from seeking urgent medical attention when they experience unexplained pregnancy loss.
The RCOG and the other professional organisations are not calling for a deregulation of abortion – they agree that abortion should be subject to regulatory and professional standards, in line with other medical procedures – but they argue that criminal sanctions should be urgently removed.
It’s a stance that the organisations have held for years now and reproductive rights campaigners have long made the point that Great Britain’s abortion laws are dangerously out-of-date. (Abortion remained illegal in Northern Ireland until 2019, but it has now been decriminalised there.)
The apparent political reluctance to engage with the subject, despite dogged work by campaigners including the MPs Stella Creasy and Dame Diana Johnson, is perhaps due to the taboos that continue to surround abortion, even in 2025. One in three British women will have an abortion in her lifetime – but too often it is still not recognised as essential healthcare.
There is even a sense held by some that abortion should be treated as shameful, that it should be associated with punishment. The current legal situation reflects that view. 'We believe that the current law nurtures an environment of fear and stigmatisation,' says Dr Thakar.
It’s an attitude that hurts the most vulnerable in particular, and those in the most painful of circumstances: the people who need a termination or lose a baby later in their pregnancy.
The fact that abortion is seen as 'a woman’s issue' may mean that it remains low on the agenda, too. We repeatedly see the deprioritisation of healthcare issues that impact women more than men. The NHS waiting list for gynaecology is the worst in the service, compared to any other specialist areas, and it is the only elective that solely treats women. Similarly, the provision for fertility treatment, essential to treat involuntary childlessness, is patchy across the NHS, and many have to turn to private services to receive the healthcare they need.
For years, Great Britain’s abortion legislation has been imperfect but largely workable. Now, with the surge in investigations and criminal charges – no one is quite sure what’s behind the rise but some legal experts point to a greater awareness of abortion medication, post-pandemic – it needs to be urgently addressed. A spokesperson for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), an organisation that has also signed the letter, points out that 'in recent years, more than 100 women have been investigated by the police on suspicion of ending their own pregnancy in England and Wales.'
Abortion is a human right and essential healthcare. Even as the misogynistic far right gains ground, the UK remains staunchly pro-choice: a 2023 YouGov survey found that 87% of Britons believe abortion should be allowed in the UK. It’s crucial, then, that our laws catch up.
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