MPs have voted in favour of measures to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancies.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill was supported, with MPs voting 379 to 137, majority 242.
The Gower MP said it will remove the threat of “investigation, arrest, prosecution or imprisonment” of any woman who acts in relation to her own pregnancy.
She told MPs she had been moved to advocate for a change in the law having seen women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions.
During the Bill’s report stage, Ms Antoniazzi assured her colleagues the current 24-week limit would remain, abortions would still require the approval and signatures of two doctors, and that 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”.
On issues such as abortion, MPs usually have free votes, meaning they take their own view rather than deciding along party lines.
During a Westminster Hall debate earlier this month, justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the Government is neutral on decriminalisation and that it is an issue for Parliament to decide upon.
