'Abortion is fundamentally boring'
The movement to decriminalise abortion in the UK
When Natalie* saw the two lines pop up on her pregnancy test, she couldn't breathe.
She was in complete and utter shock.
"It was my worst situation," she told me.
She had been in an on-again, off-again situation with a partner and assumed her lack of period was because it was her cycle.
It was a friend who'd suggested taking a pregnancy test.
"Just in case," her friend told her.
Shock at the positive sign was followed by fear and sheer terror, and she collapsed to the floor sobbing.
Her flatmate tried to reassure her.
"Maybe it's a false positive," she'd said, and they went to a local Sainsbury's to buy four further tests.
Her hope turned into despair when each of the tests, one by one, turned positive.
"I just thought I'm screwed, I didn't know how it happened because we were using contraception, and when I told the partner at the time, he said 'what are we going to do'."
Her decision was easy, she told me, she was not ready to be a mum, she was in an unstable relationship, and she made steps to work out how to get an abortion.
She had to wait until after Christmas in order to get an appointment.
She told me about her experience of the abortion clinic.
[A voice actor has been used to protect anonymity]
One month later Natalie's period did not arrive. Natalie said she initially thought "what are the chances of this happening again." But she felt maybe she should check.
When she saw the same sign on the pregnancy test again, she wondered if it was the universe's way of telling her she had to be a mum.
She told me it was a harder decision this time, one she felt she doubted much more and was hesitant that her fertility would be affected in the future with multiple abortions.
"What if I lose my chance at being a mum," she told me.
She went again for the suction removal, and found the experience much harder.
"My ex barely spoke to me and I got myself even more worked up," she told me, "I'd change who came in with me the second time round if I could do it again."
She decided to get the coil inserted straight away because she thought "I can't go through this a third time."
She has only recently told people about it, and only one of her immediate family knows.
"It took some time to realise that I wasn't 'killing' a baby," she told me.
"If I couldn't have had an abortion, I would have been endangering my child's life."
Natalie joined the one in three women in the UK who will have an abortion in their lifetime.
What she wasn't aware of at the time was that abortion remains a crime in England, Wales and Scotland under laws over 150 years old.
One movement is hoping to change all that.
*This name has been changed for anonymity
What is abortion?
Described by the NHS as a 'procedure to end a pregnancy', an abortion can either be through medical means or as a surgical same-day procedure.
Dr Sonia Adesara, spokesperson at Doctors for Choice UK, spoke to me more about the two types of abortions.
The abortion is usually carried out in an NHS hospital or licenced clinic.
Forthose earlier on in the pregnancy, since the pandemic there is the option of doing this at home after an initial appointment.
Most abortions in England, Wales and Scotland are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is the legal limit, but can be carried out after 24 weeks in very limited circumstances.
Women can self-refer to an abortion provider, speak to a GP or go into a sexual health clinic to ask for a referral to an abortion service.
Abortions are usually free on the NHS and the number of women getting an early abortion (<10 weeks) is going up on the NHS.
What is the law around abortion?
Abortion has been around in English law since the 13th Century.
Church teaching said abortion was acceptable until the 'quickening', when the soul 'entered' the foetus.
Fast-forward 900 years and we’ve gone through the Ellenborough Act, which carried a death penalty and the Offences against the Person Act, which carried life imprisonment, to give the laws known today.
Professor Sally Sheldon, Professor of Law at Bristol University, explained a 163-year-old law still shapes abortion practices today.
“My students have the same reaction as I did - they are genuinely shocked because they might have either had an abortion or know someone who has and are horrified with the legal framework in place.
“The biggest barrier to educating people about the law is that first you need to convince people that abortion is criminal, as people are not aware of that.”
"When I found out what our law said about abortion for the first time as an undergraduate student, I couldn't believe it!"
She explained criminal prohibitions contained in the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 make procurement of miscarriage a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by life imprisonment.
“This essentially means a woman who terminates her own pregnancy at any stage of the pregnancy is, in principle, committing an offence into that legislation.”
The more recent Abortion Act 1967 has carved out an exemption for this law and says women would not be found guilty provided the abortion is performed under defined conditions.
Conditions specified in the law are that two doctors need to confirm an abortion is necessary under grounds set out in the act, the abortion has to be performed by a registered medical practitioner and the abortion must be performed in approved premises.
"It's an old piece of legislation that bears no reality. Even the most recent law is over 60 years old and was passed at a time with very difficult medical realities about abortion. Those requirements don't make a lost of sense now. "
Central to the debate around abortion and decriminalisation is 24 weeks, which was established in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 as the accepted point at which a fetus is ‘viable’
Sheldon said: “Our law is restrictive on paper, and it has been up to abortion providers to liberally interpret this over the years to offer the best services they possibly can, but they still face limits.”
The women prosecuted for having an abortion
Professor Sheldon's comments come as figures revealed an increasing number of women have been prosecuted or investigated for abortions over the last few years.
A Freedom of Information request by Sky News revealed 11 cases reached court between 2020 and 2023, resulting in five convictions.
That's compared to six convictions over the whole of the previous decade.
One woman was reported to have had her hair tested for traces of an abortion, as police raided her house, after it was suspected her 28-week-pregnancy was terminated illegally.
Her case is currently being heard in court.
Manna Mostaghim, a researcher on politics of sexual and reproductive health at the London School of Economics, was contacted by one woman who was subject to a sexual assault.
She said the trauma of the sexual assault had caused the woman to dissociate.
The woman did not realise she was pregnant, but when she found out it was too late.
The woman’s abortion was now after 24 weeks, outside the legal timeframe for an abortion in the UK.
Mostaghim said she was unaware of the end of the story, but said: “The issue with abortion is that it might take you some time to realise you are pregnant, and then you have to get onto the waiting list for abortion, and then you need to make sure you get an abortion in time before the 24 weeks, and then you need to make sure that you get the right sort of service.
“The fact that people are not being referred to social services or mental health support or further healthcare providers for an abortion, but instead the police, is a travesty.”
Sheldon said prosecutions relied on the discretion of the police and the prosecutors pursuing the case, meaning in theory a woman who terminates her pregnancy earlier than 24 weeks could still be guilty of an offence under the 1861 Act.
Dr Adesara talked to me about these investigations and why she felt decriminalisation was key.
The Decriminalisation Movement
It is this which has prompted the rise of a new movement to decriminalise abortions.
Sheldon said: “Decriminalisation is the removal of specific criminal prohibitions against abortion, and in England and Wales this means repealing sections of the Offences Against the Persons Act and the Life Preservation Act so that it is not used against women who terminate pregnancies.”
Mostaghim talked to me about what decriminalisation means to her.
Professor Sheldon agreed with Moghim.
“Decriminalisation does not mean deregulating abortions, and the legal provisions safeguarding women would still be there if you decriminalised abortions.”
Moghim said current laws do not allow for the complexity of the abortion experience that is the reality.
Moghim said: “In the same way not all miscarriages are happy, not all abortions are sad.”
The public support for abortion law decriminalisation is mixed however.
A recent survey by the Telegraph showed more than half the public did not support decriminalisation for beyond 24 weeks.
However a wider British Societal Attitude Survey in 2023 found 95% of the public were in favour of abortions when the woman's health was endangered by the pregnancy, with 89% in favour when there was a strong chance of the baby having a serious health condition.
Moghim is concerned current abortion laws with its 24 week statute are contributing to health inequalities for patients, for whom those with economic and social capital to do so can procure an abortion abroad.
“By restricting it to 24 weeks, you are making sure there are two classes for healthcare in the UK which does not feel fair to me, and with the rise of abortions with austerity this issue will only become even more immediate,” she told me.
Traction to repeal the law has largely fallen wayside because of the impending election, and campaigners hope it will gain momentum once again.
What does the future of abortion law hold?
In terms of the law, Sheldon believes abortion law changes need a neutral government which would allow a change through either Private Members’ Legislation or MPs to table amendments to government legislation.
Sheldon said: “Controlling fertility is such a fundamental thing that underpins everything else - education, work, family, relationships.
“Decriminalisation is a necessary but insufficient condition to be able to offer the abortion services that women need.”
She is concerned that the UK could see a collapse in abortion rights as seen across the Atlantic with the overturning of Roe v Wade as the topic becomes more politicised.
Manna Mostaghim agrees.
“I am a researcher who got radicalised - I researched what can be delivered and instead heard what is being delivered."
“Abortion is inherently boring, it is a healthcare procedure and our laws need compassion and care for the lived experiences of real people.”
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Image Credits
[1] Roe v Wade Overturned: Protet to defend US Abortion Rights (Melb) - Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthrkac/52188391144
[2] Federal Judge Suspends FDA Approval of Abortion Pill - TPUSA https://www.tpusa.com/live/federal-judge-suspends-fda-approval-of-abortion-pill
[3] Patient at an abortion clinic - Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/conwaystrategic/28003983558
[4] Outside an abortion clinic - Tharanika Ahillan
[5] Crown Courtroom - Geograph https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/572928
[6] A British Prison - Volteface https://volteface.me/the-new-drug-sweeping-british-prison/
[7] Pregnant woman - Wikimedia https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Pregnant-woman.jpg
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