British lawmakers voted on Tuesday to prevent women from being prosecuted for having an abortion in England and Wales, a landmark decision that sets the country on a diverging path from the United States on an emotive social issue.
In effect, the vote will largely decriminalize terminating pregnancies that are later than 24 weeks, the current limit, although medical professionals who aid the process could still be prosecuted.
Britain’s Parliament, by a vote of 370 to 137, approved an amendment to a bill that would change Victorian-era laws governing abortion. The vote comes at a time of intense debate over abortion in the United States, where the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 and threw it to the 50 states to legislate their own laws.
By contrast, surveys suggest that the vast majority of the British population — consistently around 88 percent, according to YouGov, a polling agency — say they believe that women should have the right to an abortion.
Here’s what you need to know:
Was abortion already legal in Britain?
It’s complicated. Currently, having or providing an abortion remains a crime under the Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861 and could, theoretically, be punished with a life sentence.