Abortion up to birth in the UK

MPs vote to decriminalise abortion at any point up to birth

Critics say amendment to current law could pave way for dangerous, as well as sex-selective, abortions

Women will no longer be prosecuted for aborting their pregnancies at any point up to birth.

Majority of 242 to decriminalise seeking an abortion at any stage of gestation for any reason,

women will no longer face an investigation or arrest for doing so.

England and Wales, up to 24 weeks

The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – which outlaws abortion – is to be amended so that it will no longer apply to women ending their own pregnancies.

Backstreet and dangerous abortions

Sex selective

India 2025

45,080,000 more males than females

0 to 14 years

108.833 to 100

20 to 24 years

110.397 to 100

China

AI assist

Significant sex ratio imbalance, with approximately 112 males for every 100 females at birth

This disparity is largely attributed to cultural preferences for sons, the one-child policy, and practices like sex-selective abortion.

Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary

“extending abortions up until the point of birth beyond the exemptions that currently exist, as doing so would not only be unnecessary but dangerous.

“I am deeply concerned to see these measures being progressed in the name of women’s rights, when the potential physical and mental impacts on women would be so devastating.”

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

law change as “barbaric”.

“Our already liberal abortion law allows an estimated 300,000 babies a year to be killed. Now, even the very limited protection afforded by the law is being stripped away.”

Labour’s Tonia Antoniazzi, passed overwhelmingly—379 to 137

Labour 291 for, 25 against, 85 abstained

Lib dems, 70 for, 2 against

Green, 4 for, 0 against

Conservative, 8 for, 92 against

Reform, 4 for 1 abstained

Rupert Lowe, against