UK Divided Voices: UK Abortion Law Faces New Reckoning Amid Rising Activism

[Social Media]

 

Divided Voices: UK Abortion Law Faces New Reckoning Amid Rising Activism

 

As Parliament prepares to vote on two pivotal amendments to abortion legislation, the longstanding debate over reproductive rights in the UK has surged back into public consciousness. While polling shows the majority of Britons remain pro-choice, anti-abortion activism has been invigorated by political developments across the Atlantic, especially under the influence of the Trump administration.

 

In Birmingham’s city centre, a small but diverse group of people recently gathered in a quiet vigil. Among them were older community members, students, friends, and families, forming a scene marked by candlelight and rosary beads. Hymns echoed through the square, revealing a protest against abortion, a reflection of a growing, if still minor, movement challenging the status quo.

 

Despite nearly 90% of the UK public identifying as pro-choice, the anti-abortion movement has gained momentum. Activists, both young and old, are finding renewed energy, with some taking cues from the reversal of Roe v Wade in the United States nearly three years ago—a seismic moment that legalized abortion bans across several U.S. states. That political shift has inspired similar ideological battles on UK soil.

 

One flashpoint in this debate has been the UK's introduction of abortion clinic buffer zones—areas around clinics where police can prevent harassment of patients. US Vice President JD Vance recently criticised these zones, citing the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a longtime anti-abortion campaigner. Vaughan-Spruce, who has spent two decades distributing leaflets outside clinics, now returns weekly to silently pray due to the restrictions. In 2022, she was arrested for praying silently near a clinic. Though charges were dropped, she later received £13,000 in a civil claim against West Midlands Police, who did not admit liability.

 

“They actually asked me what I was doing, and I said, well, I'm just physically standing here. I might be praying in my head, but nothing out loud. And on that basis, they made an arrest. I was heavily searched, I was taken to the police station, locked in a police cell for hours before being questioned under caution. And then, eventually, I went to court,” she recalled. “I believe that abortion centres are like the modern-day Calvary. This is where the innocent are being put to death.”

 

But for those like Ailish McEntee, who works at a London abortion clinic, such demonstrations are harmful distractions. She supports a proposed amendment that would decriminalise abortion for women seeking it up to 24 weeks. “The law itself works very well for the majority of people, but for those individuals in those kind of really high-risk domestic abuse situations... they maybe can't make it to a clinic, they might seek abortion care from those kind of unregulated providers,” she said. “So this amendment would take away that decriminalisation of women themselves. And it's a really strange part of the law that we have.”

 

McEntee also believes anti-choice rhetoric has been emboldened. “I think particularly in recent years, with Roe v Wade overturning and Donald Trump winning the election again, I think it's really pushed forward the anti-choice rhetoric that has always been there, but it's absolutely ramping up.”

 

A Sky News and YouGov poll found that 55% of the public support changing the law to prevent women from being criminalised for abortions before 24 weeks. However, 22% believe women should still face investigation or imprisonment for terminating a pregnancy after that period.

 

Labour MP Stella Creasy is among those proposing the amendment to decriminalise abortion. “There's no other health care provision that we see with a criminal foundation in this way and it has a very real practical consequence,” she argued. “We've seen some incredibly vulnerable women and girls who didn't even know that they were pregnant who have late-term miscarriages finding themselves with police officers rather than counsellors at their hospital beds... and I just don't think that's where the British public are at.”

 

Yet others, like Rachel from Rachel’s Vineyard UK, see the proposed changes as misguided. Her organisation, which helps people cope with what it calls the trauma of abortion, takes a moral and faith-based stance. “With all sudden deaths, whether you are 80 years of age or you're 26 weeks born, you know, out of the womb, and you've died, you've sadly died, we need to be able to investigate that. For us to have compassion, we need to have justice.”

 

As the Commons prepares to cast its votes, the country finds itself at a crossroads, balancing public support for reproductive rights against a vocal minority determined to challenge them.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from Sky News  2025-06-18

 

 

[JonnyF]

3 hours ago, Social Media said:

“They actually asked me what I was doing, and I said, well, I'm just physically standing here. I might be praying in my head, but nothing out loud. And on that basis, they made an arrest.

 

Yes that's what happens when you oppose the "Liberal Progressives". 

 

You get arrested. For silent protest.

 

She should have donned a Keffiyeh, a balaclava, a Palestinian flag and openly called for the elimination of Israel over a loudspeaker. She'd have been left well alone. 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

45 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Yes that's what happens when you oppose the "Liberal Progressives". 

 

You get arrested. For silent protest.

 

She should have donned a Keffiyeh, a balaclava, a Palestinian flag and openly called for the elimination of Israel over a loudspeaker. She'd have been left well alone. 

 

It might be an idea to add trigger warnings to OP’s in the forum.

 

Just about any topics whatsoever triggers  your perpetual off topic nonsense.

[Chomper Higgot]

4 hours ago, Social Media said:

Yet others, like Rachel from Rachel’s Vineyard UK, see the proposed changes as misguided. Her organisation, which helps people cope with what it calls the trauma of abortion, takes a moral and faith-based stance.

Rachel is entitled to her faith, she’s not entitled to impose it on others.

 

 

[JonnyF]

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Rachel is entitled to her faith, she’s not entitled to impose it on others.

 

 

 

Because it's the Christian faith, presumably.

 

[baansgr]

UK..the country of baby killers

[proton]

Abortion is murder, a woman's right to chose is when she has sex without contraception

[pimmmm]

10 minutes ago, baansgr said:

UK..the country of baby killers

USA prefers to let them be born then shoot them while they're at school. 

[Chomper Higgot]

3 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Because it's the Christian faith, presumably.

 

No not at Jonny, all faiths.

 

Follow which ever you wish or non at all, up to you, but it’s got nothing to do with the choices other people make.

 

My apologies, I had no intention of triggering you.

[Chomper Higgot]

6 minutes ago, baansgr said:

UK..the country of baby killers

Back again with your lies.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

4 minutes ago, proton said:

Abortion is murder, a woman's right to chose is when she has sex without contraception

No abortion isn’t murder.

And women have a lot more rights to choose.

 

 

[James105]

The abortion law is/was a settled issue in the UK.   No party had any changes to abortion law in their manifesto.   Nobody was campaigning for a change in the law.   Labour have now effectively legalised abortion up to birth and this was after just a 45 minute debate in parliament and added to a bill that was effectively already passed so it will not face any further scrutiny nor do the public have any say on this.   

 

These people are shockingly evil.   

[Chomper Higgot]

Just now, James105 said:

The abortion law is/was a settled issue in the UK.   No party had any changes to abortion law in their manifesto.   Nobody was campaigning for a change in the law.   Labour have now effectively legalised abortion up to birth and this was after just a 45 minute debate in parliament and added to a bill that was effectively already passed so it will not face any further scrutiny nor do the public have any say on this.   

 

These people are shockingly evil.   

Nonsense, abortion has not “been legalized up to birth”.

 

On the matter of ‘Abortion being settled law’ I take it that was an attempt at satire.

 

[JonnyF]

7 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

No not at Jonny, all faiths.

 

Follow which ever you wish or non at all, up to you, but it’s got nothing to do with the choices other people make.

 

My apologies, I had no intention of triggering you.

 

No need to apologize Chomps, I wasn't triggered by your hypocrisy. Simply pointing it out.

 

You'd have no issue with a Muslim doing a call to prayer in public.