Decriminalising abortion is a major step toward giving women full control over their bodies

Kate Devlin examines what the historic vote means for women in England and Wales

The vote to decriminalise abortion will herald the largest changes to the law on terminations in decades.

The changes are designed to ensure women cannot be prosecuted for terminating their own pregnancy at any stage.

While access to abortions is generally available in practice, this legal aspect imposes unnecessary stigma, restricts autonomy, and risks criminalising women and healthcare providers, campaigners say.

Removing abortion from criminal law allows it to be treated like any other healthcare issue – governed by clinical guidance, not courts.

This decision aligns England and Wales with countries like Canada, New Zealand, and parts of Australia, which have seen improved access and no increase in abortion rates – only safer outcomes.

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And it has happened as a result of a type of MP that were once quite rare on the House of Commons’ green benches – women.

During the debate, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi said women today were being prosecuted under an “outdated” law passed by an all-male parliament in the 19th century.

“Originally passed by an all-male parliament elected by men alone, this Victorian law is increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls,” she told MPs.

“Women affected are often acutely vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, girls under the age of 18 and women who have suffered miscarriage.”

Campaigners have argued that women must no longer be "dragged from hospital bed to police cell" over abortion.

The issue has hit the headlines in recent times with high-profile prosecutions of women such as Nicola Packer, who took prescribed abortion medicine not realising she was 26 weeks pregnant.

Abortion was legalised in Britain in the 1960s amid a national outcry over women dying as a result of botched backstreet terminations.

Afterwards, however, there was a nervousness among UK lawmakers, with many reluctant to tinker with the rules in case hard-fought rights were lost.

In recent years there have also been moves by some to try to limit the rights, such as reducing the time limit from 24 weeks.

But there has been a sea change in recent years, and it has been thanks to the election of many, many more women.

MPs have been freed to come forward with changes to give women more autonomy over their lives, in the knowledge that more of the people who will be voting on the proposed changes to the law are women.