Little-known fact: abortion is technically a criminal offence in England and Wales, governed by a law from 1861, before women got the right to vote.
As powerful anti-choice groups seek to roll back reproductive rights here - as we’ve seen in the US and Europe - we’ve joined forces with BPAS, the UK’s leading abortion care service, on new campaign End 1861, to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales.
Head here to take action to raise your voice for choice and fight for bodily autonomy.
‘I am calling on the UK government to remove abortion from criminal law so that no pregnant person can be criminalised for procuring their own abortion.’
Gemma Clark, a Scottish school teacher, was funnelling her building rage and indignation at the rollback of reproductive rights - and their alarming human consequences - in the US as she wrote these words in a petition to the UK Government, earlier this year.
The petition, which has since attracted 103,653 signatures, was hand-delivered by Gemma to Downing Street last month. It calls for something that seems so ordinary, so common sense, so ‘isn’t this already a thing?’
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But it’s not. Abortion in England and Wales remains criminalised by the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. A law introduced over half a century before women were given the right to vote.
The later Abortion Act 1967 gives doctors a medical exemption - AKA a legal defence - for performing abortions and allows women to access safe, legal abortion if authorised by two doctors; it means that safe and legal abortions are accessible for most.
But outside of the restrictions set out in the 1967 Act, abortion remains a crime that carries a maximum life sentence and under which an unprecedented number of women have been investigated over the past three years.
As Cosmopolitan UK launches End 1861 with abortion providers BPAS - our campaign to take abortion out of the criminal law in England and Wales, of which you can read more about here - Gemma, whose petition is set to be debated in Parliament next month, explains why she took action. And, why you should, too.
‘Ever since the rollback of Roe vs Wade - which made access to abortion a constitutional right in the United States - I’ve closely watched the pushback against women's reproductive rights around the world.
It’s made me think: how safe are we here, really? And what can we do to make things better and protect ourselves as much as possible?
Watching as women in the UK were prosecuted for so-called illegal abortions under a law from the Victorian era after years without prosecutions - and reading how concerned both women’s rights and medical organisations are - made me fear that the true answer to the first question is: “not as safe as we might think”.
A lot of people don't realise that abortion is still technically a crime under a law from 1861, and it’s only legal under certain circumstances, set out in the 1967 Abortion Act.
That women and girls are being dragged through the courts because of a law that was enacted before women gained the right to vote is horrifying to me.
I think it’s barbaric nonsense to treat women and young girls like that in this day and age in this country. And these cases are rising, which I think is really concerning. So, my thinking is: let’s just get rid of that ridiculous law; that will stop this from happening.
As a teacher, l feel a massive responsibility to the next generation: I want the world they grow up in to be equal. I see the rise of misogyny among school-age boys. I see the grooming of children into violent anti-women ideologies. I see securing bodily autonomy for women as all part of the same fight.
That my petition garnered so many signatures illustrates what we know to be true already: that the UK is a very pro-choice country. I don’t think there is a widespread desire to rollback abortion rights here - and I think there’s a lot of people who would like to improve women’s access to this form of healthcare (along with improving women’s healthcare services that remain underfunded and all too often deprioritised).
That might make some people think: well, why campaign on abortion rights in the UK, now? But I really think it’s important to be loud now because if we lose rights, we won't claw them back, retrospectively.
And what I’ve learned is that there is a small extremist fringe who are very vocal, loud - and quite abusive. The pro-choice majority can’t just sit silently.
Especially as American groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom have reportedly been trying to interfere in our laws here - trying to support anti abortion activists, claiming that they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs when in fact they have been outside clinics, breaching buffer zones and disturbing patients who are going in.
The anti-choice side will frame their arguments in common sense terms. Calling for small reductions to the time-limit, for example. This approach is dangerously effective; it feeds into that wider misogynistic view that women are inherently evil and we must be very tightly controlled and regulated, or we'll do evil things.
But people need to be a bit more mature about abortion: 89% of abortions happen very early, before 10 weeks. Some of the later cases are heartbreaking - often happening in really terrible circumstances, to vulnerable women. I believe no one has a right to judge them.
I live in Scotland, where abortion remains criminalised (though not under the 1861 act) - and where people struggle to access abortion services after 20 weeks, so many have to travel to England. Despite decriminalisation, access also remains a problem in Northern Ireland.
Then there’s the two doctors rule, where - as part of the 1967 Abortion Act - someone has to persuade two doctors that they’re worthy of making a decision about their own body and future. And that can be a problem if you’re somewhere rural and remote and have an anti-abortion doctor who won’t give you access - holding up the process, while you have to navigate the health system to find another medic.
I want MP’s to listen to what 30+ medical and women’s rights organisations are saying: take abortion out of criminal law and make it what it truly is: a healthcare issue - a choice - that women can and should be trusted to make about their own bodies.’
