Statement: Decriminalising Abortion Amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill

Statement from Paul Foster MP  Decriminalising Abortion Amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill 

---

Yesterday I voted in favour of Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to decriminalise abortion.

The amendment prevents women from being investigated, arrested, prosecuted or imprisoned for terminating their own pregnancies. It modernises a Victorian-era law; it doesn’t change any of the existing safeguards or strict medical oversight, which will remain firmly in place.

This does not mean that abortion will be “legalised” up to birth in the UK — it means it has been decriminalised. Abortion remains heavily regulated, but women are no longer treated as criminals for making desperate decisions about their own bodies. Medical professionals are still bound by the Abortion Act 1967, which sets the gestational limit at 24 weeks (with very limited exceptions beyond that, e.g. grave risk to life or severe fetal abnormality). Late-stage abortion cannot be assessed legally without meeting those exceptions. Doctors can still be prosecuted if they act outside these laws.

As a man, I can only try to comprehend the circumstances that might lead a woman to feel so desperate that she believes she has no other option but to end her pregnancy. I can only imagine that anyone who reaches that point must feel utterly without choices, or be extremely vulnerable.

While forming my own views on this, I listened to many women’s stories. One that particularly stayed with me was about a woman whose partner coerced her into taking abortion pills against her will. She was later prosecuted, jailed for two years, and now lives with immense guilt and remorse. How can that possibly be right?

The reality is that desperate circumstances lead to decisions that many of us would struggle to fathom. So often, these women are also victims of domestic abuse, violence, trafficking or sexual exploitation. What they need is compassion and support — not the threat of a prison sentence.

Finally, just to put this into context, abortions after 24 weeks are extremely rare, accounting for about 0.01% of all abortions.

---