Women in England and Wales convicted of, or cautioned for, an abortion offence relating to their own pregnancy have been automatically pardoned, after the relevant section of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 came into force on Monday.
The Ministry of Justice said the women "will have the details removed from their criminal records today as they are automatically pardoned". The pardon applies to living and dead women. Bodies holding official records now have a duty to delete details of convictions and cautions, as well as of arrests and investigations.
The change completes a reform Parliament approved earlier this year. A separate section of the Act, removing women from the criminal law on abortion in relation to their own pregnancies, has been in force since Royal Assent on 29 April. The pardons needed commencement regulations, which were made on 15 October and set 16 November as the date.
Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for victims and tackling violence against women and girls, signed those regulations. She said pardoning the women "has been a priority and I'm pleased to be able to commence the change that Parliament voted for".
The Act does not necessarily require records to be physically erased. In law, deleting details from prescribed official records means recording alongside the relevant details "a statement that the details are to be treated as deleted under this section".
The scope is limited. The House of Commons Library says the provision applies "only to women, both living and deceased, where they were acting in relation to their own pregnancy". A Ministry of Justice equalities impact assessment says women convicted of or cautioned for offences relating to another person's pregnancy will not be pardoned, and those records will stand.
The pardon did not begin as a government measure. Baroness Thornton, a Labour peer and former health minister, tabled it as an amendment in the House of Lords, where peers backed it in March by 180 votes to 58.
The explanatory statement to her amendment said: "Abortion offences are classed as violent crimes meaning they will permanently be disclosed as part of a DBS check." Disclosure and Barring Service checks are used by employers to vet job applicants.
Dr Jonathan Lord, a consultant gynaecologist and co-chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists abortion taskforce, called it "an historic day".
"For the first time since the 13th century, women who have been convicted following a pregnancy loss for an alleged abortion will no longer have to carry the consequences of a criminal record," he said.
Estimates of how many women are affected vary and do not measure the same thing. Humanists UK, which campaigned for the change, said in April that around 100 women had faced police investigation since 2020 on suspicion of illegal abortion offences, with six appearing in court and one imprisoned. Right to Life UK, which opposes the reform, has said only seven cases have involved female defendants.
The underlying decriminalisation remains contested. The Commons approved it by 379 votes to 137 on 17 June 2025, on an amendment from Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower. According to the Commons Library, it disapplies sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 for women acting in relation to their own pregnancies "at any gestation".
In March, peers rejected by 185 votes to 148 an attempt led by Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest, a Conservative peer, to remove it from the Bill. She described it as a "radical proposal" passed by the Commons "without any evidence, scrutiny, public consultation or impact assessment", the PA news agency reported at the time.
Supporters, including Humanists UK and MSI Reproductive Choices UK, say the reform does not change abortion time limits or when clinicians can provide abortions.
Join the Discussion
Have something to say? Join the conversation!
Sign in to share your thoughts and engage with other readers.
Sign In Create AccountNo comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this article!