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PULSE POINTS

❓WHAT HAPPENED: Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom voted in favor of decriminalizing abortion for the full term of a pregnancy.

👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy, along with 176 MPs backing Antoniazzi’s amendment and 108 MPs supporting Creasy’s proposal.

📍WHEN & WHERE: The debate and vote took place in the UK Parliament on June 17.

💬KEY QUOTE: “Removing the threat of investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment of any woman who ends their own pregnancy.” – Tonia Antoniazzi

🎯IMPACT: The amendments significantly alter the legal framework surrounding abortion in England and Wales, impacting women, healthcare providers, and the justice system.

Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom voted 379 to 137 to decriminalize abortion up to birth. Leftist Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy each proposed amendments with differing approaches to the issue.

Antoniazzi’s amendment, which passed, seeks to remove the threat of investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment for women who kill their unborn babies after 24 weeks, which is the current effective limit. She stated that her proposal would not technically alter the time limit for abortion, but with mothers no longer liable for prosecution if they break it, it will be largely meaningless.

“The 24 limit remains. Abortions still require the approval of signatures of two doctors, and women would still have to meet the grounds laid out in the Act,” Antoniazzi claimed, but noted that women who do get an abortion after 24 weeks will face no criminal prosecution. Medical professionals or abusive partners who terminate a pregnancy could still face criminal charges.

Creasy’s amendment, which was not voted on, went further by aiming to enshrine abortion access as a human right.

Under current law in England and Wales, abortion is technically illegal, but permitted up to 24 weeks of pregnancy for effectively any reason provided two doctors approve it, in a process that has become essentially a formality. Beyond this period, abortions are allowed only in exceptional circumstances, such as when the woman’s life is in danger or there are severe fetal abnormalities. The most recent data shows that 252,122 abortions were reported in 2022, the highest number recorded.

If Creasy’s amendment had passed, it could have essentially legalised abortion for all nine months of a pregnancy. Canada, a fellow Commonwealth country, has similar rules around abortion, where there is no criminal law against it during any period of a pregnancy, though there are rules within the medical profession itself.

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