Members of the British Parliament on Tuesday are debating two amendments that would prevent criminal prosecutions for women who self-manage an abortion later in pregnancy, after fetal viability, following a surge in medication abortions in the United Kingdom in recent years.

The competing amendments are associated with a broader crime bill working its way through the House of Commons. Both amendments would prevent prosecution against the woman for terminating her pregnancy after 24 weeks of gestation. One would fully decriminalize late-stage abortion for all parties involved.

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Current law in England and Wales allows for abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, around the time of fetal viability, after which the child could survive outside the womb. Abortions after the 24-week mark are investigated as criminal offenses unless they are signed off on by physicians in cases where the procedure is necessary to save the mother’s life.

Abortions across the U.K. have increased dramatically since restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone were loosened during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing women to terminate their pregnancies at home before 10 weeks of gestation. 

Abortions in England and Wales increased by 17% from 2021 to 2022, according to the most recent available data. In 2022, there were 251,377 abortions in England and Wales, 80% of which were funded by the National Health Service. 

Nearly 9 in 10 abortions in England and Wales, approximately 86%, in 2022 were medication abortion, as opposed to surgical abortion.

A similar trend has developed in the United States following the American Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow mifepristone to be sold online and mailed directly to patients, who self-manage their abortions at home.

Data from the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, found that roughly two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. involved mifepristone in 2023. The number of abortions in the U.S. has surpassed the annual numbers under Roe v. Wade federal abortion protections due to the increased access to mifepristone, even in states that have banned the procedure. 

Across the pond, increased access to mifepristone has led to a growing number of abortion-related criminal investigations.

Abortion providers in the U.K. have reported receiving roughly 100 requests for medical records from law enforcement in relation to suspected abortion offenses since 2020. Since 2022, six women have appeared in court in England for allegedly ending or attempting to end their own pregnancies.

Labour Party MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s proposed amendment to the crime bill, backed by the U.K.’s main abortion providers, would prevent women from being investigated, prosecuted, or imprisoned for terminating their own pregnancies. 

Antoniazzi’s amendment would not remove criminal liability from abortion providers or those who aid a woman in obtaining a later-in-pregnancy abortion, including friends and family buying abortion pills on the internet. 

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The other amendment proposed by another Labour MP, Stella Creasy, would protect anyone involved in a later-in-pregnancy abortion from liability by enshrining access to abortion as a fundamental human right. 

U.K. anti-abortion groups have argued that both measures go too far and will eventually lead to the normalization of on-demand abortion at any stage of pregnancy.