ASK THE GOVERNMENT TO DECRIMINALISE ABORTION IN THE UK

Two women in the UK are currently being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancies through legislation that was created before women were even given the vote. Help to support these women by telling the UK Government Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab MP, to act NOW.

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Dear Secretary of State for Justice,
I am contacting you in support of calls from international, medical, and civil society bodies groups to ask for an urgent review of the current law which is being used to criminalise women for ending their own pregnancies, and a moratorium on criminal prosecutions and police investigations in to these cases.
In England today, there are at least two women being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancies. An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that eleven women were reported to police last year in England and Wales accused of illegally procuring an abortion. This was up from seven in 2020, eight the year before, and just two in 2018.
In total, 52 women have been reported to police since 2015. The figures do not include the past six months, as Home Office data is not yet available for 2022.
Recent and ongoing cases
<ul>
<li>In the first weeks of the pandemic, a woman who sought an abortion and subsequently passed a pregnancy at a later than expected gestation was subjected to a more than two-year investigation by the police. This woman is awaiting trial;</li>
<li>A migrant woman who obtained and self-administered the abortifacient misoprostol in 2021 in a failed attempt to end her own pregnancy – she is now a parent to a toddler, and court reporting indicates she was reported to the police by her medical team. This woman is awaiting trial;</li>
<li>A 15-year-old girl was investigated by police after a stillbirth at 28 weeks, accused of illegal abortion, her phone and laptop confiscated during her GCSE exams, and driven to self-harm by the year-long investigation – which concluded only when the coroner found that the pregnancy had ended as a result of natural causes.</li>
</ul>
The proposals for change
We believe that it is never in the public interest to prosecute women for ending their own pregnancies. The laws under which abortion is criminalised are up to 161 years old – they do not reflect society, and treat desperate women as having committed the same crime as a violent partner ending a pregnancy without consent. Women deserve better. We are therefore calling for:
<ul>
<li>Women to be removed from the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 in relation to their own pregnancies – bringing England and Wales into line with the law in Northern Ireland, which was passed by Parliament in 2018;</li>
<li>For all ongoing investigations and prosecutions of women in relation to ending their own pregnancies to be halted;</li>
<li>For women who have been found guilty of a crime related to ending their own pregnancy to be pardoned.</li>
</ul>
With two women awaiting trial, the need for action is urgent.
Please do not silently watch as vulnerable women are criminalised for ending their own pregnancies.
Please commit to reviewing this law – and protecting women – today.
I look forward to hearing from you.

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