Progress, Not the Finish Line

This week’s Commons votes on abortion marked a significant victory, politically, practically and symbolically. They represent one of the most substantial parliamentary shifts away from criminalisation in England and Wales in years.

MPs voted to retain and strengthen Clause 208, to protect telemedical abortion access, reject new criminal offences relating to abortion pills, block attempts to restrict telemedicine for under-18s and back a pardon for women investigated under so-called “illegal” abortion offences.

Taken together, these votes mark a major advance for abortion rights.

MPs rejected a model that treats abortion through crime and policing. We know that criminal law has never been a neutral vehicle for regulating abortion. It has enabled surveillance, investigation and prosecution in situations that should have been met with care, not punishment.

That has always been one of the central problems with abortion remaining tied to criminal law: it invites a punitive response to a healthcare issue. Yesterday’s votes pushed back against that logic.

This victory has been more than a decade in the making. The campaign to remove women from criminal law relating to abortion was launched ten years ago. What happened yesterday was the product of sustained coalition-building, parliamentary organising and a refusal to accept criminalisation as inevitable.

There is also a reason to be precise about what has, and has not, been achieved.

This is not full decriminalisation.

Abortion remains partially governed through criminal law, and many of the arguments for fully removing abortion from that framework remain unresolved.

That is why “historic win” and “unfinished business” can both be true.

This was a major step forward, but it was not the end of the argument.

A genuine victory, and a reminder of how much organised pressure it takes to shift even part of the legal terrain.

Progress, not the finish line.

Sip the champagne, then back to work. 🥂✊