U.Okay. Parliament bans girls from being prosecuted for late-term abortion : NPR

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30px)" class="img" type="image/jpeg"/> <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6720x4480+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2Ff6%2Fc697450a44ba8374669f4d377dae%2Fgettyimages-2219923907.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6720x4480+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2Ff6%2Fc697450a44ba8374669f4d377dae%2Fgettyimages-2219923907.jpg" class="img" alt="Protesters from 'Abortion Rights' watch Alex Davies-Jones, Parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, talk in the House of Commons as they gather near Parliament, where MPs are voting on the decriminalization of abortion on June 17 in London." fetchpriority="high"/> Protesters from 'Abortion Rights' watch Alex Davies-Jones, Parliamentary under-secretary of state on the Ministry of Justice, speak within the Home of Commons as they collect close to Parliament, the place MPs are voting on the decriminalization of abortion on June 17 in London. Alishia Abodunde/Getty Photographs disguise caption

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Alishia Abodunde/Getty Photographs LONDON — Within the greatest reform to British abortion legal guidelines in almost 60 years, members of Parliament have voted to decriminalize some late-term abortions — at a time when a lot of their U.S. counterparts are shifting within the different path, to restrict the process.

<source srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-original="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-format="webp" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/webp"/><source srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-original="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/jpeg"/><img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x4500+1390+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2Fe2%2F52c6e6be4afd9e468ad5987cd301%2Fnetwork.jpeg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="An illustration of a woman on the phone, looking nervous as a group of anonymous women holding hands stand behind her." loading="lazy"/> In a landslide vote late Tuesday, lawmakers within the decrease home of British parliament, the Home of Commons, endorsed new laws that bars girls in England and Wales from ever being investigated, arrested, prosecuted or imprisoned for terminating their very own pregnancies — it doesn't matter what time period or trimester they're in. The vote was 379 to 137.

Abortion is allowed as much as 24 weeks of being pregnant, and past that in sure circumstances, if the lady's life is in peril. However abortions need to be permitted by two medical doctors, aside from these which might be terminated at dwelling inside 10 weeks.

Girls who've ended their pregnancies exterior these guidelines — for instance by shopping for capsules on-line and taking them at dwelling, through the third trimester — have in some circumstances been prosecuted.

The brand new regulation adjustments that.

Some of the well-known circumstances of ladies who've been prosecuted is that of Nicola Parker , who delivered a stillborn child at dwelling, on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, after taking abortion medication prescribed by a physician over the cellphone when she was about 26 weeks pregnant. At trial, she instructed jurors she thought she was solely six weeks alongside. She was arrested, jailed — and in the end acquitted last month .

"The brand new [law] is about recognizing that these girls want care and assist, and never criminalization," the writer of an modification to the brand new regulation, MP Tonia Antoniazzi, told Parliament , calling the outdated regulation "outdated" and "Victorian."

Others say the brand new regulation does not go far sufficient.

<source srcset="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s=100&c=85&f=jpeg" data-original="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" data-format="webp" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/webp"/><source srcset="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s=100&c=85&f=jpeg" data-original="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/jpeg"/><img src="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2025/05/07/personhood_sq-a60d3676819221501d36212135a26c054cbe3f28.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="'Personhood' argues fetal rights are the next frontier of the anti-abortion movement" loading="lazy"/> It doesn't change guidelines governing abortions in a scientific setting, and it leaves open the opportunity of prosecutions of anybody who assists a lady in getting a late-term abortion, together with medical professionals.

One other MP, Stella Creasy, proposed an modification that may have absolutely decriminalized abortion and enshrined entry to it as a human proper. However it was not allowed to be introduced for a vote. In an op-ed Wednesday , Creasy known as it a "missed alternative."

One more modification, on which lawmakers additionally weren't allowed to vote, would have prevented the sale of mail order abortion capsules.

The brand new regulation nonetheless wants approval within the higher home of Parliament, the Home of Lords, earlier than taking impact — however backers have the votes there, and that's all however assured.

Due to the UK's devolved system of presidency, this regulation covers solely England and Wales. The opposite two nations within the U.Okay., Scotland and Northern Eire, have their very own, comparable units of guidelines governing abortion and different issues.

That is however the most important change to British abortion legal guidelines for the reason that Abortion Act of 1967, which legalized abortion in England, Wales and Scotland. Initially that regulation allowed the process as much as 28 weeks of being pregnant, however it was later lowered to 24 weeks.