Abortion in the 21st Century: Decriminalise It—Now

Abortion is healthcare.
Abortion is a human right.
Abortion is still a crime in England and Wales.

In 2025.

A woman in this country can be sentenced to life in prison for ending her own pregnancy. A woman can be dragged through the courts, publicly humiliated, have her children taken from her, and face a lifetime of stigma—not because she committed a violent crime, but because she made a private medical decision about her own body.

This isn’t dystopia. This is Britain.

A Law from 1861 Is Destroying Lives in 2025

Under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861—a 164-year-old law written before women had the vote, before antibiotics, before the NHS— abortion remains a criminal offence. The 1967 Abortion Act didn’t change that. It only carved out a loophole: if two doctors agree that continuing the pregnancy poses enough of a risk, then maybe—maybe—a woman or a pregnant person can access the healthcare they need.

And if not? She’s on her own.

This is not autonomy. This is not modern medicine. This is not justice.

People Are Being Prosecuted. Right Now

Carla Foster. Sophie Harvey. Nicola Packer. These names should haunt us. These are women who ended up in court, and Carla in prison, in the last two years for ending their pregnancies.

And they are not alone.

Since 2002, prosecutions related to pregnancy outcomes have increased by nearly 200 percent. Women are being investigated after miscarriages. Their homes raided. Their children removed. Their names splashed across headlines. Their lives shattered.

Why? Sometimes because they ended a pregnancy. Sometimes because they lost one. Because they were pregnant in a system built to punish, not protect.

Abortion Is Legal—Until the State Says It Isn’t

Even when abortion is technically allowed, it’s tightly policed.

You must see two doctors.
You must justify your mental state.
You must do it by 10 weeks if it’s via telemedicine.
You must do it by 24 weeks for most other procedures.
You must do it in a registered place.
You must not break any rule.
You must not be poor, rural, undocumented, or desperate.

If you fail any of those conditions—you’re a criminal.

This is a system of conditional mercy, not bodily autonomy.

No More Compromise. No More Technical Fixes.

Currently there are two potential amendments on abortion law being proposed to the Crime and Policing Bill, although neither is decriminalisation of abortion, they are a reflection of the desire to stop women being prosecuted.

Of course, we welcome even incremental improvements and want to see an end to prosecutions. But what does this situation say about how our society treats women in the 21st century?

When our vital reproductive rights are at stake, the only option we are faced with, to win even minimal change, is placing abortion rights into the heart of a bill that denies other rights and expands state surveillance, police power and criminal punishment.

Our Demand: Full Decriminalisation.

We want to see abortion removed entirely from the criminal law. Torn out. Root and branch.

We demand:

Full repeal of Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
An end to all criminal penalties for people who end their own pregnancies and those who support them including doctors, family or friends.
Regulation of abortion as healthcare, like any other medical procedure.
Investment in real access: clinics, staff, funding, education and genuine choice.

No more doctors acting as gatekeepers. No more criminal investigations. No more courtrooms. No more prisons.

We do not believe in a state that calls abortion healthcare, while prosecuting those who need it.

Decriminalisation means everyone.
Without exception. Without fear. Without delay.

Abortion Is Not a Crime

We refuse to celebrate a system that tells us abortion is not a crime—as long as you play by our rules.
We refuse a version of justice that still locks people up for bleeding in private.
We refuse to accept that healthcare should come with a police warning.

This fight is not just about legal strategy.
It is about freedom. Dignity. Self-determination.

Abortion is healthcare. Full stop.