I want to speak specifically to new clause 1, which was tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North and concerns a matter close to my own heart: the removal of women from the criminal law relating to abortion. The Minister just made a compelling argument for ending the use of language from the Offences against the Person Act. Abortion remains a criminal act in England and Wales because of a piece of legislation from before any of us in this building were even born.

If a woman undergoes an abortion at any gestation without the permission of two doctors, whether she takes abortion medication bought online or a uses sharp object to end her pregnancy in desperation, she commits a crime that carries a maximum life sentence. Although the Abortion Act 1967 legalised abortion in certain fixed circumstances, the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 maintain the criminal framework. In the 50 years following the passing of the Abortion Act, only three women in the UK have been convicted of an illegal abortion, but in the last 18 months, six women have appeared in court charged with allegedly ending their own pregnancy outside the law. Meanwhile, abortion providers have reported receiving escalating numbers of requests for women’s medical records from the police in relation to suspected abortion offences. The catalyst for this uptick in police investigations is unclear, but we need only look at what is happening in countries such as the USA, where citizens have lost their constitutional right to an abortion in recent years, and Poland, where a near-total ban on the procedure has taken effect.

Our laws in England and Wales are punishing women who are in the most desperate situations, and some are investigated when there is no evidence at all that they have had an abortion, and when they instead suffered premature labour, a late miscarriage or a stillbirth. Newspapers have reported harrowing stories of the impact on women in the most desperate circumstances. In one example, seven police officers arrived at the home of a woman who had called an ambulance when her baby was born prematurely. They searched her bins and provided no assistance while she performed mouth-to-mouth on her unconscious child, who was still attached to her placenta by the umbilical cord. The mother and baby survived.

In another example, a vulnerable 17-year-old girl presented to abortion services in the early days of the pandemic. She was unable to travel to a clinic on two occasions owing to covid restrictions, so passed the legal abortion limit and was referred to children’s services and antenatal care. Soon after, she delivered a stillborn baby at home, and was then investigated by the police on suspicion of abortion law offences. Another woman was taken from her hospital bed after undergoing surgery and was forced to spend 36 hours in a police cell while still suffering from the after-effects of birth. Women whose names are reported by the police to journalists have had threats posted through their doors, have had to leave their house, and have had social services remove children from their care.

The example that perhaps sticks in all our minds is from last summer, when a mother of three from Staffordshire was sentenced to 28 months in prison for using abortion pills to end her pregnancy. Although her appeal was successful, and she was released from prison the following month on a suspended sentence, the impact has been long-lasting and catastrophic. Overnight, she went from a mother living a quiet life to having her photograph and the ins and outs of her private life splashed across the nation’s papers. Even now, journalists try to doorstep her whenever another case is reported in the media. This supposed crime will, for her, as for those who have “only” raped their wife, forever remain on her record and show up on any Disclosure and Barring Service check for the rest of her life. That is despite Dame Victoria Sharp, the Court of Appeal judge who overturned the conviction, saying that the case

“calls for compassion, not punishment”.

Mr Justice Pepperall, in the initial sentencing, stated that this is

“a matter for Parliament and not for the courts”.

Those statements are why I propose an amendment to remove women from the criminal law, when it comes to abortion.

This amendment would ensure that vulnerable women in England and Wales were no longer subject to years-long investigations, criminal charges, or custodial sentences for ending their own pregnancies. That is all it would do. It would have no impact on the provision of abortion care. There would be no change to the time limit or the requirement for two doctors’ signatures. Women would still have to meet one of the grounds for abortion laid out in the Abortion Act 1967. Indeed, non-consensual abortion would remain a crime for any gestation and anybody, including a medical professional, who assisted a woman in obtaining an abortion outside the law would still be liable for prosecution.

The change is supported by more than 30 leading women’s rights groups and medical bodies including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Midwives, Refuge, and the End Violence Against Women coalition. It is a tightly-drafted amendment that will ensure that now, in the 21st century, no more women in England and Wales will face jail for decisions made at the most difficult time of their life.