English Parliament looks to reform abortion laws after a woman’s prosecution

Antiquated English laws don’t reflect modern methods of ending pregnancy. Some women have faced intrusive investigations and prosecutions for self-managing abortion.

(Photo courtesy BPAS)

The English Parliament debated abortion this week, setting the stage for possible reform after a woman faced life imprisonment for violating archaic laws in May.

An 1861 law known as the Offences Against the Person Act permits a sentence of life imprisonment for some people who perform abortions illegally. Another law passed in 1923 is the Infant Life Preservation Act. That prevents abortions past the point of viability. In 1967, that law was liberalized, and it permitted abortions in certain situations.

Last month, a 45-year-old Englishwoman named Nicola Packer was cleared by a jury of violating the 1961 law after an intrusive investigation and prosecution that saw her sexual history be a subject of testimony. She had taken an abortion pill later in pregnancy than she expected after being prescribed it through Telehealth during the pandemic.

Afterward, activists met with members of Parliament, who were taken aback by the amount of negative publicity that the trial got. Katherine O’Brien, head of campaigns and communications for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which is the largest abortion provider in the country, spoke to me about its immediate impact.

“It's been absolutely horrific what women like Nicola Packer have had to go through,” O’Brien said. “But I do think that it's really helped members of Parliament understand the current law and the impact of it, because I don't think that there was any real awareness of the law prior to women going on trial.”

The debate happened after a Scottish woman launched a petition to have Parliament discuss the issue. It amassed more than 103,000 signatures.

“It raised awareness of the issues for MPs, and it also forced the government to sort of show their hand and make clear where they stand on this,” O’Brien said.

“And when the government representative spoke on Monday, their response was very much that this is a matter of conscience, and this is for MPs to decide. But they didn't suggest that they were the government was going to be opposed to any reform.”

The laws haven’t kept up as abortion care has evolved to use medication primarily. So women who take mifepristone are caught up in a web of misinterpreted and misunderstood laws that authorities there have decided to enforce.

In the country, there have been six prosecutions of women who took abortion medication. Abortion clinics there communicated with activist leaders and told them that they had been contacted more than 100 times as police investigated. One Englishwoman was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison for criminal abortion. She had her sentence commuted, but she served time, which is the more critical point.

Most of England’s population supports abortion rights, but there is a growing movement against it. Among those groups are Right to Life UK, Society for the Protection of the Unborn, and the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. Much of the rhetoric and funding comes from American organizations that push their agendas. In the English government, the antiabortion contingent is known as the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group.

Much like in the early part of American abortion history, there is much polarization within the political system. Both parties, Conservative and Labour, have members who are against and for abortion rights. It’s a matter of conscience.

On the pro-choice side, leaders like Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi are driving the arguments for reform. Nigel Farage, a Reform Party member who pushed for Brexit, has criticized attempts to reform the abortion laws. Farage has said that he was pro-choice, but he doesn’t want abortion permitted past 24 weeks.

“He's a right-wing politician,” O’Brien said. “He has talked about the scandal of late-term abortions. But I do think that polling shows that this country is actually very pro-choice, and there isn't that same divide in this country that you see in others.”

A hullabaloo occurred this last week when Transport for London, its mass transit system, blocked advertisements from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service that called for reform to the country’s abortion laws. The reasoning was that it called into question the reputations of the London Police and City Hall.

The advertisements showed the cases of women whom police had investigated for criminal abortion. A QR code was available for people to scan, enabling them to email their MPs and express their support for reform.

Following the ban, an article in The Guardian stirred an outcry. Then, London Mayor Sadiq Khan asked the TFL to reverse their decision. They did, and now the ads are running.

O’Brien said they hope to have a vote on the reform by June 18.

“There's a general sense that reform is something that needs to be done,” O’Brien said. “But what I'm getting from MPs is an uncertainty about exactly how that should be, and how the change needs to be made. And I think that in general, parliamentarians are very wary of doing anything on abortion, and they worry that they're sort of sticking their head above the parapet.”