British lawmakers have moved to change abortion policy by decriminalizing it up to birth.
Under an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill supported by 379 Members of Parliament, no prosecutions would be had for women who terminate pregnancies in all circumstances. Under current British law, abortion is decriminalized for the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Women who have an abortion after 24 weeks are subject to prosecution under a Victorian law, called the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. The 1967 Abortion Act allowed exceptions to the 19th-century policy.
The proposal may still be changed or voted down.
The decriminalization policy would not apply to doctors who participate in abortions without authorization beyond the 24-week mark.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi told lawmakers that “women need care and support, and not criminalisation.”
“Each one of these cases is a travesty, enabled by our outdated abortion law,” she said, as per the BBC. “Originally passed by an all-male parliament elected by men alone, this Victorian law is increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls.”
The Center of Reproductive Rights celebrated the amendment, calling it an “important step forward,” while the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) called the vote “horrifying and heartbreaking.”
SPUC’s Public Policy Manager, Alithea Williams, said the “very limited protection afforded by the law is being stripped away by MPs who seem to have no compassion for babies in the womb, even those ready to be born alive.”
“They have shown just how out of touch they are with a public who certainly do NOT agree with abortion up to birth,” Williams stated.
