In Detail, In Brief: Protecting women from inappropriate prosecution

The House divides to vote on Amendment NC1 to the Crime and Policing Bill

Last week, the Labour Government’s tough new Crime and Policing Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons and has now moved to the House of Lords for further consideration and scrutiny.

One amendment, tabled by my colleague Tonia Antoniazzi MP, garnered a lot of focus online and in the press. The amendment would disapply existing criminal law related to abortion from a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy at any gestation. The legal framework surrounding abortion in the UK would remain unchanged, with time limits in place to prevent abortion late in the term of pregnancy.

I voted for the amendment because it will ensure that the small number of women who take the extraordinary step of ending a pregnancy after 24 weeks are not subject to criminal proceedings. I believe that any woman who takes that step does so out of desperation or in circumstances of profound distress and needs support not condemnation. The amendment also protects women who suffer miscarriages and stillbirths from being hauled into a police interrogation room at what can already be a traumatic moment in their life.

In her speech introducing the amendment, Tonia Antoniazzi raised several shocking instances where police had pursued an investigation of a woman in relation to the ending of her pregnancy, including an instance where this had come about due to the coercive actions of an abusive partner and another instance where a woman was subject to a year-long investigation after giving birth prematurely, despite testing negative for abortifacient drugs.

I do not believe that it is in the public interest for such cases to be taken up against often vulnerable women who may be underage, the victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

We must be clear that if the amendment remains in the final text of the Crime and Policing Bill once enacted, healthcare professionals acting outside the law and abusive partners using violence or poisoning to end a pregnancy would still be criminalised, as they are now.

I supported the Antoniazzi amendment because it will bring immediate protection to women so that they can receive the care and support they need rather than fearing arrest. The amendment, which received cross-party support, was also widely supported by abortion providers, healthcare bodies such as The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Nursing as well as numerous groups that work to end violence against women and girls.