After MPs voted last year to change the law in England and Wales, members of the Lords will now put forward proposed amendments
MPs voted last year to end the criminalisation of women who terminate pregnancies outside the legal framework. It was hailed as the biggest step forward for reproductive rights in England and Wales in six decades.
On Wednesday evening, abortion law will again come under the parliamentary spotlight when members of the House of Lords put forward their proposed amendments to the legislation.
Last summer, MPs voted to decriminalise abortion, with an amendment to the crime and policing bill – now adopted as a clause – put forward by Tonia Antoniazzi, a Labour backbencher. Support was overwhelming, with 379 in favour and 137 against.
Under the legislation, which is yet to be enacted, women who end their pregnancies outside the legal framework will not be prosecuted. That framework – which includes the need for two doctors’ signatures and has time limits at which terminations can be carried out – remains the same, and doctors who act outside the law still face prosecution.
