The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, along with over 30 other medical, legal and public health bodies and experts, is calling for urgent action from Parliament to protect women’s essential reproductive rights.
Six women have appeared in court in England over the past two years charged with ending their own pregnancy. Prior to this, there have been only three reported convictions for illegal abortion since the current law was introduced – in 1861.
Thirty signatories including five other Royal Medical Colleges, the British Medical Association and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health have signed a Joint Position Statement on Reproductive Rights. The statement calls on Parliament to immediately address the trauma and cruelty women are being subjected to - by decriminalising abortion to remove the threat of prosecution in relation to a women ending their own pregnancy.
This will ensure women and girls in England and Wales have the same protections as their counterparts in countries such as Northern Ireland, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Examples of recent prosecutions include a case heard by an English court in 2024, where a teenager had been arrested at midnight and held in custody for 19 hours on suspicion of ending her own pregnancy. The court was told how she was left “completely broken” having gone through the trauma of a stillbirth and then being forced to relive the events six years later at her trial.
In another case, that was eventually dropped, a young woman’s barrister described how she had “suffered so extensively” while she was grieving that a psychiatric examination had confirmed that the proceedings had had a profound effect on her.
In the last Parliament there were also several attempts to restrict access to essential abortion care.
President of the RCOG, Dr Ranee Thakar said:
“No woman should be forced to continue a pregnancy against her will. No woman should face the threat of jail, or the distress of an investigation or prosecution for ending a pregnancy, or for experiencing unexpected or unexplained pregnancy loss.
“The large majority of the public agree that it is not in the public interest to prosecute women for ending their own pregnancy. The law needs urgent reform to decriminalise abortion, which should always be a healthcare matter and not a criminal matter.”
Dr Jonathan Lord, co-chair of the RCOG abortion taskforce, states:
“There has been a surge in the number of investigations of women suspected of an illegal abortion, including after premature labour and miscarriage. These women are often vulnerable and deserve care and compassion. In some cases, young children have been removed from their family.
“Even if charges are not brought, the impact of the investigation is profound and causes life-changing harm to women and their families. Many cases do not proceed to a prosecution, but it can take years before the case is dropped.”
President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, Dr Janet Barter states:
“It isn’t just the horrific treatment of women and girls being subjected to a criminal investigation that concerns us. The laws come from Victorian times, an age when values and societal norms were completely different from today.
“In effect, they can prevent us from offering best practice through nurse-led or community care which cannot be right. A change to the legislation is long overdue.’
The RCOG, along with the other signatories of this letter, is calling for these changes to be made as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill. They are also calling for a new Bill to be introduced to modernise current abortion legislation so that it can be managed through the same robust regulatory and quality monitoring processes as all other healthcare.