One in three women in the UK will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old – and, with a few important caveats, accessing an abortion for a pregnancy at less than the 24-week limit is usually relatively straightforward.
So it comes as a surprise to many, according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), that in most of Britain the procedure is still governed by a 160-year-old law that declares abortion a crime, and another, passed almost 60 years ago, that outlines the specific exceptions in which it can be allowed.
The distressing story this week of a woman jailed for more than two years for lying to obtain abortion pills, ending her pregnancy after the legal limit, has highlighted just how high the stakes can be.
Campaigners and politicians of all parties expressed shock and outrage at the sentence, pointing out that the case occurred in the early months of the pandemic, when face to face services were unavailable. They argue that there was no public interest in jailing the woman, who has three children, one with special needs, and that the sentence could also deter others from seeking help. But her case has also cast light on the archaic laws that govern abortion in the UK – and the urgent need, campaigners believe, to reform them.
With the number of people being investigated by police for procuring abortions having risen over the past three years, I spoke to Katherine O’Brien, associate director of BPAS, about why – and what she believes needs to change. More on that after the headlines.
Five big stories
Donald Trump | The former US president has pleaded not guilty to all counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents as he was formally arraigned in Miami, Florida, becoming the first former US president to face federal criminal charges. Later at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump railed against his prosecution and made baseless claims that Joe Biden was behind it.
Nottingham | Among the victims of the stabbing attacks in the early hours of Tuesday morning were two 19-year-old students named locally as Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar. A third victim, in his 50s, has yet to be named. A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Counter-terror police were helping officers with their investigation but Nottinghamshire police insisted they were keeping an “open mind” about the motive.
House of Lords | Rami Ranger, a prominent Conservative peer and donor, bullied and harassed a female journalist after she publicly criticised him and an organisation he runs, a committee has ruled. Ranger has apologised and promised to attend a behavioural course.
Immigration | Three families seeking asylum in the UK have launched a legal challenge against new Home Office rules to ditch basic housing protections for tens of thousands in this group.
Romania | Prosecutors in Romania say they have changed the human trafficking charge against Andrew Tate to a more serious one. Tate, his brother Tristan and two other suspects are now being investigated for human trafficking in continued form, reportedly a more serious crime than separate counts of trafficking.
In depth: ‘What we’re calling for is for abortion to be treated in the same way as any other healthcare procedure’
Abortions after 24 weeks are rare in Britain, and the case of the woman jailed for illegally procuring abortion pills is a particularly tragic one, as even the trial judge acknowledged.
Estranged from the father of her children and pregnant by another man, she was forced by the pandemic to move back in with her former partner and “in emotional turmoil” as she tried to conceal the pregnancy. She was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she induced the abortion.
Her actions in lying to obtain tablets under the hurriedly introduced “pills by post” scheme may have been born out of desperation, but they were also expressly criminal under UK law. Though she now felt “very deep and genuine remorse” and was haunted by flashbacks of her dead child’s face, the judge said, “in my view your culpability was high” – hence the harshness of her sentence.
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What does the law say at present?
“The fact is, healthcare in this area can’t advance because it’s still a criminal offence governed by legislation passed in 1967,” Katherine O’Brien tells me. No other medical procedure is carried out according to what MPs believed 60 years ago – before abortion pills were even invented – she points out. “We wouldn’t accept that in any other area of healthcare.”
In England, Wales and Scotland, abortion is outlawed under the Offences against the Person Act 1861, and this is the legislation under which the woman was prosecuted. Crucially, while the 1967 Abortion Act outlines circumstances in which it can be allowed – and gives what BPAS calls “broad discretion” on how it is interpreted – it does not overturn the earlier legislation, so any abortion outside its terms carries a potential life sentence.
The 1967 law allows an abortion before 24 weeks if the pregnancy would risk harming the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman, and potentially later if it risks her life, could cause her “grave permanent injury” or if there is a “substantial risk” the foetus would be “seriously handicapped”.
While the woman in this week’s case terminated her pregnancy later than the legal limit, says O’Brien, “she could have been prosecuted at any gestation” if she had acted outside the terms of the 1967 act. Prior to the pandemic-related introduction of pills by post (last year made permanent in England after a vote by MPs), “we were aware that every week, every month, women were trying to buy pills online. Any woman who bought the pills online could be sentenced to up to life imprisonment under the law as well.”
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What do campaigners want?
One of the great ironies of British abortion law is that campaigners are now calling for all the home nations to be given the same legal status as Northern Ireland – where until recently abortion was effectively illegal altogether.
A Westminster vote led by the Labour MP Stella Creasy (pictured above) in 2019 explicitly repealed the 1861 act where it relates to abortion, making Northern Ireland the only part of the UK where it is decriminalised. “It seems absurd that we’re calling for women in Great Britain to be given the same protections as women in Northern Ireland,” says O’Brien. The fact that MPs have already voted to repeal in part of the UK, however, arguably shows they have accepted the principle. (While the law in Northern Ireland may have changed, O’Brien notes, abortion provision there remains very limited – most women needing surgical procedures still need to travel to Great Britain.)
More broadly, modernised abortion legislation could include things like provision for nurse-led services, she says. “But at the moment, given that this woman has been criminalised, the priority is to reform, to protect more women going forward.”
Some of those who argue against decriminalisation suggest it could lead to a free for all, but O’Brien said this has not been the case in other countries, such as Canada, that have decriminalised. “No woman aspires to have a late abortion; the vast majority of women want to access abortion care as soon as possible. And decriminalisation does not mean deregulation. What we’re calling for is for abortion to be treated in the same way as any other healthcare procedure.”
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Why are police investigations rising?
One of the most troubling aspects highlighted by this week’s case is the rise of police investigations, over the past three years, into alleged illegal abortions.
“While the passing of pills by post has improved women’s access hugely across the country,” says O’Brien, “what it has also done, I would say, is [bring about] a growing suspicion that women might have used these pills outside the terms of the law.” She cites the case of a 15-year-old girl whose unexplained stillbirth led to a year-long police investigation, until a coroner found her baby had died of natural causes.
“In all of the cases that I’m aware of personally, these are women who had been reported to the police by healthcare professionals,” says O’Brien. “That puts us in a very frightening position, whereby a woman attending hospital, potentially what she might disclose in that medical consultation could then trigger a police investigation. The chilling effect that could have is really quite concerning.”
What else we’ve been reading
Sport
Cricket | Ben Stokes, pictured above, is pushing hard to fulfil his pledge of bowling in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Friday, with the England captain to decide whether to hit Australia with the pace of Mark Wood or the experience of Stuart Broad. Here’s all the key player info for England and Australia, and our team’s analysis of how England have turned up the dial in Test cricket.
Basketball | In an open letter, British basketball’s chairman, Chris Grant, has written that the sport faces an “unsustainable and untenable” position, so lacking in resources it is unable to employ a single person full-time. Grant published this letter two days before GB Basketball’s women aim to take a major step towards qualifying for the Olympics for the first time.
Football | A damning report by Fifpro involving responses from 362 internationals found that footballers were placed “at risk” during qualifying for next month’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand by a lack of medical support and substandard working conditions.
The front pages
“Students among victims stabbed to death in Nottingham rampage” – the Guardian’s lead story this morning. “Murdered 5 minutes from home” says the Daily Mirror about the “killing rampage” in Nottingham. “Students killed in dawn knife attacks” – that’s the Daily Telegraph while the Times has “Knifeman kills three in rampage through city”. The Daily Express says “Killed at random … just five minutes from home” while the Daily Mail’s headline is “Horror in Nottingham / Killed as they walked home from night out” and the Sun says “Knifed to death in rampage”. “Students die in white van knife horror” – that’s the Metro. The Nottingham story gets a puff on the front of the i (the report is inside) but its splash is “Mortgage stress to hit levels last seen in 1980s – as interest rate heads for 5.75%”. The top story in the Financial Times is “Bailey highlights stubborn inflation as wage growth triggers rate rise bets”.
Today in Focus
How Saudi Arabia took over professional golf
After months of bitter divisions in the world of professional golf, a major deal has resulted in victory for Saudi Arabia and its bid to influence the future of the sport. Ewan Murray reports
Cartoon of the day | Henny Beaumont
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Born in Jamaica in 1959, Tessa Sanderson came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation. At school, her PE teacher noticed her exceptional sporting talent and became her mentor – they have remained friends all these years later.
With her encouragement, Sanderson practised and honed her craft and, despite health and funding issues as well as racism from British Athletics, Sanderson made her way to the 1984 Olympics in Barcelona, where she set a new Olympic record to win javelin gold. Although she did not realise it at the time, she became the first Black British woman to win an Olympic title.
In an interview for the Guardian’s Black lives series, Sanderson reflects on her extraordinary sporting career, her rivalry with Fatima Whitbread and the example she has set for her children. “A couple of months ago, my daughter had a ‘Who would you like to be?’ day at her school and she dressed up in my Barcelona Olympics top,” she says.
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