UK Abortion Rights Could Be At Risk Of US Influence

England and Wales is still operating under an 1861 law that criminalises abortion access. This specific law does not apply to Scotland but abortion is still technically a criminal offence there. In Northern Ireland, abortion was decriminalised in 2019. Refinery29 has been pushing for change for years with our I’m A Criminal campaign but progress remains slow: In 2022, two women faced trial for having abortions in the UK. In February the BBC reported that between 2018 and 2024, up to 60 women and people with wombs in England and Wales were investigated by police on suspicion of illegally terminating a pregnancy — before 2018, criminal inquiries of this kind were almost unheard of. Most shockingly, in 2023 a woman was sentenced to over two years in prison for taking abortion pills after the time limit (thankfully her sentence was reduced, suspended and she was released). After pressure from women’s healthcare groups, MPs had been due to vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales via the Criminal Justice Bill — but that vote was dropped due to the general election this year. The archaic law we operate under is still unamended.