Abortion law

We played a big role in the introduction of legal abortion to Northern Ireland in 2020. We worked through the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) and by intervening in all recent legal cases. That ultimately led to the Northern Ireland (Executive) Formation Act 2019 which fully decriminalised abortion.

But abortion remains in criminal law in the rest of the UK. In recent years a growing number of women have been prosecuted under our Victorian abortion laws. In 2025 we successfully backed a House of Commons amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to decriminalise abortion for women ending their own pregnancies. The Bill is now before the House of Lords, where peers upheld decriminalisation. We also support other measures to improve access to abortion, such as home-use of abortion pills that were introduced in 2020 in Britain. We expect a new Bill will be introduced shortly to reform abortion law in Scotland.

We applauded the introduction of safe access zones around abortion clinics in the UK to allow women to access medical services without being harassed or intimidated. These were finally introduced in England and Wales in 2024 having been made into law in 2023, and followed Northern Ireland introducing them in 2023, and Scotland which passed and brought into force a similar law in 2024.

In depth

Decriminalising abortion in Britain

We support abortion being removed from criminal law and being governed by medical regulation like all other medical procedures.

In England and Wales, abortion is a criminal offence under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) as well as the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which states that a woman or anyone assisting her in procuring an abortion can face life imprisonment. We campaign to repeal the relevant sections of these laws to remove abortion in its entirety from criminal law.

Since 1967 the Abortion Act has created exceptions to these laws in Britain, allowing women to legally and safely access abortions in certain circumstances with the consent of two doctors. Although most women can access abortion services under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act, the law has failed to keep pace with medical advances and best practice and alarmingly several women have faced prosecution under this law.

From 2020 to 2025, over 100 women have been investigated by police, six faced prosecution, and one was imprisoned under our Victorian abortion laws. Abortion is essential healthcare. Vulnerable women ending their own pregnancies, often due to desperate circumstances, deserve compassion and support, not criminalisation.

To this end, we supported a successful House of Commons amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which will take women ending their own pregnancies out of criminal law. This amendment does not have any impact on the provision of abortion care: there is no change to existing term limits and anybody, including a medical professional, who assists a woman in obtaining an abortion outside of the law would be liable for prosecution as it remains within criminal law. The Bill has completed its Commons stages and is now heading to the House of Lords before it becomes law.

This will bring England and Wales into line with Northern Ireland which has fully decriminalised abortion since its introduction there. Unlike in England and Wales, this includes decriminalising abortion for healthcare workers, as well as for those ending their own pregnancies.

Even once decriminalisation passes, there will be more work to be done to reform abortion law in England and Wales to bring the law up to date and regulate it like healthcare. We look forward to turning our attention towards that task in the coming years.

In Scotland, abortion is a criminal offence under the common law. Our sister charity, Humanist Society Scotland, campaigns for decriminalisation. It is hoped that Scotland will pass an updated Abortion Act in the next Scottish parliamentary term.

Safe access zones in the UK

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in anti-choice activities around abortion clinics. Women were frequently harassed and intimidated by activists, aiming to prevent them, either through physically blocking them or through emotional coercion, from accessing medical care to which they have a legal right. We supported BPAS’ Back Off campaign which successfully introduced legislation across the UK to establish safe access zones around abortion clinics.

In England and Wales, these were finally introduced in late 2024 having been made into law in 2023, and made it an offence to influence, obstruct, or harass anyone within a 150m radius around any premise providing abortion services, and anyone found guilty of breaking the law will face an unlimited fine. This covers acts such as handing out leaflets, protesting against abortion rights, shouting at individuals, or physically restricting someone’s access to a clinic or hospital.

Since their introduction, various hardline Christian groups have been challenging safe access zones through a series of test cases, designed in part to generate publicity. The Alliance Defending Freedom has become active in the UK, with a surge of income, much of it from the United States. In 2025 it has used that money to fund such cases. The cases looked briefly like they may threaten the UK securing a trade deal with the US.

Northern Ireland first introduced safe access zones in 2023. This was also a long road to fruition as the legislation was initially passed in 2022 – the first time the Assembly ever voted for a pro-choice law – but was challenged by Northern Ireland’s Attorney General. However, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Act did not ‘disproportionately interfere’ with protesters’ rights so the law could stand.

Scotland passed a similar law in 2024 which mandates the creation of safe access zones 200m from the entrance of sites providing abortion care. This was thanks to the hard work of organisations like Humanist Society Scotland. It came into force three months later.

Abortion rights in Northern Ireland

In 2019, abortion in Northern Ireland was finally legalised. The old abortion law was one of the most restrictive in Europe, and the criminal sanctions imposed were among the harshest in the world, with the maximum sentence being life imprisonment. Under the old law, abortion was only legally permitted if there is an immediate risk to the woman’s life. Restrictions forced women to either travel to Britain to receive treatment, risk prosecution for procuring illegal online abortion pills, or continue their pregnancies against their wishes and in violation of their rights. There had been no exception made for pregnancies that arise as a result of sexual crime or where there was a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality.

Women in Northern Ireland are now able to access legal, safe, and local abortion services after long campaigning for these important rights.

We worked with a number of MPs and peers to support amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive) Formation Act 2019, which compelled the UK Government to make regulations for abortion in Northern Ireland if the Northern Ireland Assembly did not reconvene by later that year. We also intervened in support of several legal cases to establish that the current restrictions on abortion in Northern Ireland are a violation of human rights – our work on these being set out in the last section of this article. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and intervened in by Humanists UK, that the law is ‘untenable’, ‘disproportionate’, and in need of ‘radical reconsideration’.

However, despite the new law, the Northern Ireland Executive failed to commission abortion services. And so, in 2021, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis decided that the UK Government would intervene to force the introduction of services by laying new regulations that ordered the Northern Ireland Department of Health to commission abortion services. This happened in 2022. We now continue working to ensure that all women in Northern Ireland have access to services.

Conscientious objection

The Abortion Act and Northern Ireland law don’t compel doctors with conscientious objections to abortion to take part in the procedure. This position respects people’s differing interpretations of the right to life and its bearing on the issue of abortion. We oppose the right to conscientiously object being extended to other medical professions who are not directly involved in the abortion procedure.

Contraception and relationships and sex education

We believe that it is best if every child is wanted. In addition to our work on abortion, we campaign so that all young people, regardless of their religion or belief, receive full, impartial, and comprehensive relationships and sex education that contains accurate information about contraception and abortion, and have access to free contraception. This would allow them to make informed reproductive choices.

What we’re doing

• We are a member of the Voice for Choice coalition, as well as the End Violence Against Women Coalition. We also work with and support Alliance for Choice in Northern Ireland, as well as other pro-choice groups across the UK such as BPAS, MSI Reproductive Choices, Abortion Rights, and Brook to reform and protect abortion law across the UK.
• We supported amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill in 2025 to take abortion out of the criminal code in relation to women ending their own pregnancies in England and Wales. This followed a woman being imprisoned for taking abortion pills, parliamentary debates on the matter, and the concerning news that police were told to examine period apps when investigating pregnancy loss.
• We welcomed the introduction of safe access zones in England and Wales in 2024. This means that every nation in the UK now has safe access zones. This significant achievement follows the successful Back Off campaign led by BPAS, which we cofounded in 2015.
• We continue to work with parliamentarians to resist any attempts to restrict abortion rights and access in the UK. In 2023, for example, we saw three private members’ bills introduced in the House of Lords to restrict abortion rights.

Appendix: Past work on this issue

• In 2023 Home Secretary Suella Braverman chose to consult on implementation of safe access zones instead of establishing them. We responded to the consultation to express our alarm about the proposed religious loopholes that would have rendered the law incapable of protecting women from harm and abuse. Safe access zones were eventually introduced without the concerning loopholes following the General Election in October 2024.
• In 2018, we supported efforts to pass a private member’s bill on decriminalisation of abortion, that was introduced to Parliament by Diana Johnson MP. We briefed MPs in support of this Bill which passed its first reading by 208 votes in favour to 123 opposed but then went no further.
• We also intervened in a judicial review of the decision by the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland to bring a prosecution against a mother who had procured abortion pills for her underage daughter who had become pregnant as a result of a sexual crime. In 2019 we welcomed the decision to acquit the mother, not long after the Northern Ireland announcement to decriminalise abortion.
• In 2019, we had a huge result in the Sarah Ewart case which was heard in the High Court of Justice in Belfast. Sarah Ewart was denied an abortion in Northern Ireland in spite of having a fatal foetal abnormality and was forced to travel to England for the termination after being told her pregnancy would not result in a child that could survive outside the womb. In October the court found her human rights were breached, in a landmark decision which should guarantee changes to the country’s restrictive abortion laws and give more women access to safe and legal abortions.
• In 2019, MPs and peers voted in favour of amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act, which compels the UK Government to make regulations for abortion reform in Northern Ireland if the Northern Ireland Assembly fails to reform by 21 October 2019. We lobbied parliamentarians in support of this, with many members of the APPHG speaking and voting in favour. That change happened after we intervened in several legal cases in favour of this reform. Most significantly, in 2018, we were the first intervener in a case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission that saw the Supreme Court rule that abortion must be made legal in the cases of rape, incest, or fatal foetal abnormality.
• In 2022 we identified and protested against the UK Government unilaterlally amending a multinational statement it organised to drop ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ and ‘bodily autonomy from its statement committing to the fundamental rights of women and girls.
• We welcomed the introduction of permanent at-home abortion provision for women in England and Wales in 2022. In England, we briefed the APPHG to vote in support of a clause added to the Government’s Health and Care Bill which overturned a previous decision of the Government to end the provision.
• In 2023 Northern Ireland introduced safe access zones around its abortion clinics.
• In 2024, Labour MPs Diana Johnson and Stella Creasy each tabled amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill that would decriminalise abortion for women seeking a termination. We briefed the APPHG in support of these amendments, but due to the dissolution of Parliament before the General Election, no amendments to the Bill were debated.