Last summer, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside the legal framework, through a new clause in the crime and policing bill. The House of Lords considered its own series of amendments to the legislation on 19 March this year, including two that would end active police investigations into suspected illegal abortions and pardon women who have already been criminalised.
Although some votes were close with a lot of anti-choice co-ordination, the House of Lords voted 185 to 148 in support of decriminalisation of abortion, 191 to 119 against banning telemedicine, 180 to 58 in favour of pardons for women with criminal convictions for arranging their own abortions, and 163 to 68 against removing the right to abort using telemedicine from young people.
The main purpose of the bill was to reform the UK abortion law and stop the prosecution of women who ended their own pregnancies using medical abortion pills without the (previously legally required) permission of two doctors.
This vote took place as part of the report stage of the Crime and Policing Bill, as it progresses through parliament. The Bill includes Clause 208, which will reform outdated abortion laws and put an end to the invasive criminal investigations and prosecutions following an unexplained pregnancy loss.
This follows a historic vote by MPs last June, when the amendment, tabled by Tonia Antoniazzi MP, was added to the Crime and Policing Bill in the House of Commons and supported by a majority of 379 MPs. The legislation was progressing through Parliament, with members of the House of Lords proposing further amendments after this vote.
Another pro-choice amendment was also passed, introducing pardons for those who have been convicted – this gives pardons for any existing convictions and removes details from police records. It was supported by 180 votes to 58, a majority of 122.
Once the legislation is enacted, people will no longer be arrested for ending their own pregnancies. Recently it was revealed that, since the MP vote last June, women have continued to be investigated under the Victorian-era law, the 1861 Offences against the Person Act.
Bethan Cobley of Marie Stopes International UK said: “We have proudly campaigned for this reform alongside 40+ other pro-choice organisations, including doctors, nurses, royal colleges, abortion providers, and gender-based violence charities. Abortion is healthcare, not a crime.”
What’s next?
Following this vote, the bill goes to the third reading stage, which gives the House of Lords a final chance to make further amendments.
The published protests against passing the bill by anti-abortion members of the House of Lords, shared in the anti-abortion media, were hard to believe, mainly that abortion up to birth was legalised with this bill.
MSI congratulated “all the peers in the House of Lords and many other partners who worked so hard for this outcome”.
SOURCE: Bethan Cobley, House of Lords supports abortion law reform – MSI Reproductive Choices UK, Press release, 19 March 2026; Lords urged to ensure women criminalised for abortion are ‘not left behind’ | Abortion | The Guardian, by Hannah Al-Othman, 18 March 2026. PHOTO: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images, in the Guardian article.