Without basically any public debate or meaningful legislative scrutiny, MPs in parliament passed a major reform to Britain’s abortion laws last week. Decriminalisation now means mothers cannot be prosecuted for aborting their unborn children all the way up to birth. This radical change has caught many onlookers on the hop – where has this come from? What will it change in practice? Why is it happening? Wasn’t abortion already legal in England? This week we’re joined by Dawn McAvoy from the campaign group Both Lives to try and track the history of abortion policy in the UK and how we got to a point whereby the de facto legalisation of abortion on demand all the way up to 40 weeks could be rammed through parliament in less than an hour. We look at the changing scope of abortion law, the shifting justifications used whenever the law is changed, and how decriminalisation was effectively piloted in Northern Ireland over the heads of its own lawmakers to pave the way for last week’s reforms in England.
Come back next week for the second half of our conversation, covering the critical if unforeseen role of the covid pandemic and the pills by post scheme, as well as a closing discussion of how Christians and the church could respond to these developments.

Find out more about Both Lives - https://www.eauk.org/what-we-do/initiatives/both-lives/about

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Released on 25 Jun 2025