RCN position on decriminalisation of abortion in England, Wales and Scotland

RCN Position

The RCN believes that all women must be able to continue to access safe and effective abortion care and be able to decide for themselves about their own pregnancy.

The RCN believes that abortion should be governed by regulatory and professional health care standards rather than criminal law (legislation) and supports calls for the decriminalisation of abortion in England, Wales and Scotland. 

The RCN also supports the rights of health care workers to conscientiously object to providing direct abortion care, except in an emergency.

Background

It is a criminal offence in England, Wales and Scotland for a woman to procure her own abortion. It is only legal if two doctors agree that she meets the grounds of the Abortion Act (1967) (and HFEA 1990). There are a small number of women who end a pregnancy outside of these legal parameters. Rather than being supported, some women face prosecution. They are often vulnerable, with complicated medical histories or mental health issues. 

In Northern Ireland, abortion is regulated through the legal framework of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020. This allows for a woman to decide to end her own pregnancy without fear of prosecution. 

Context

In England, in 2023, a woman was sentenced to 28 months in prison for using abortion pills to end her own pregnancy (BMA, 2023). After significant public and professional concern, the woman was released from prison early, leaving her with a criminal record. Currently (2024), other women await similar trials.

To ensure that abortion can be managed as a health care issue, with care and compassion and not as a potential crime, the RCN is supporting calls on the UK Government to decriminalise abortion across the UK. This must include suspending and dropping any pending or current prosecutions. Many other organisations, including the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, already support this campaign.

Decriminalisation would mean that abortion, like any other health care procedure, would be subject to usual safeguarding practices alongside regulatory and professional standards, rather than criminal sanctions. Abortion services must continue to be tightly regulated, with health care professionals responsible to their professional regulators, and the rights of conscientious objectors upheld. Abortion should be treated as a health, rather than a criminal, issue.

The rights of health care workers to conscientiously object to abortion must remain, while taking into account the principles related to this within the Nursing and Midwifery Code. Further information can also be found in the RCN 2024 conscientious objection publication.

The vast majority of abortion care is provided to women. Other people whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth can also experience pregnancy and abortion. For simplicity of language, this document uses the term women and female pronouns, and this should be taken to include people who do not identify as women but who are pregnant.

We keep our language under review as part of our commitment to inclusion.