Episode 54: Not Quite as Decriminalised as We Thought: A Closer Look with Stella Creasy

On 17 June 2025, MPs had the opportunity to vote on two amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill relating to abortion:NC1 aimed to prevent women from being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancy.NC20 went further, seeking to fully decriminalise abortion by repealing the relevant criminal provisions altogether.Both amendments retained the Abortion Act 1967 as the framework for abortion care, meaning the legal grounds for accessing abortion would remain unchanged. However, only NC20 would have made abortion a human right, protected it from future restrictions, and decriminalised the act for both women and healthcare professionals involved in providing abortion care.While we may not fully understand why abortion groups and charities didn't support NC20, we do know that some of the arguments put forth by MPs to oppose the amendments – such as the claim they were about ‘saving women from themselves’, stopping women from 'getting to full term and deciding that the pregnancy is an inconvenience', or that abortion reform should wait for a standalone bill – were ill-advised, insincere and patronising.In the end, only NC1 was passed.So...Why are British tabloids now claiming that MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion in the UK?Why were MPs allowed to misquote statistics on the record in Parliament to bolster opposition to abortion reform — without judicial correction?And most importantly, what are the real consequences of this vote for women, healthcare providers, and the future of reproductive rights in the UK?We asked Stella Creasy, Labour (Co-op) MP for Walthamstow to join us for an episode to unpack what really happened in Parliament on June 17th, why the vote on NC20 mattered, and what’s next for abortion rights in the UK.This episode was recorded on June 18th 2024. *****Helpful links: The Mummafesto Podcast, hosted by Stella Creasy:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-mummafesto/id1735494350Hansard Society Debate Overview:https://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-bulletin-16-june-2025#tuesday-17-june-2025Recording of the Debate (start at 16:56:46 in the index):https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/97c409d6-cd51-4596-9921-96e0bfeb7677