Latest news with #End1861
Cosmopolitan
16-06-2025
- Cosmopolitan
Sharon Gaffka: "I had an abortion and a miscarriage – and our current laws left me terrified during both"
Little-known fact: abortion is technically a criminal offence in England and Wales, governed by a law from 1861, before women got the right to vote. As powerful anti-choice groups seek to roll back reproductive rights in the UK - as we've seen in the US and Europe - Cosmopolitan has joined forces with BPAS, the UK's leading abortion care service, on a new campaign: End 1861. It hopes to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. Head here to take action to raise your voice for choice and fight for bodily up, I saw people on the internet call abortion 'the easy way out.' Women were accused of being irresponsible, of not 'taking responsibility' for being clumsy, reckless, or not 'careful enough.' But let me tell you something: two of the hardest moments of my life were a miscarriage and an at-home early medical abortion. Nothing about either was easy. Living through both of these experiences hammered home the reality of our current abortion law and its real-world impact. One was my choice. The other was completely out of my control. But both were painful, lonely, and traumatising. Something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Along with knowing that, in the eyes of the law, I could be treated not as a patient, but as a suspected criminal. My miscarriage was sudden and brutal. I hadn't yet made any decision about the pregnancy, but my body made it for me. I was alone at home, in agony, bleeding and terrified. I called for help because I feared for my life. I didn't want to be on my own. But the idea that someone might suspect I had done something to cause my miscarriage never crossed my mind... until I found out they could. Because under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, women who have suffered miscarriages or stillbirths have found themselves being investigated by police, under suspicion for illegal abortions. Those found guilty can be jailed for life. This included a 15-year-old girl, who suffered an unexplained early still birth. Police were called by hospital staff who believed she had taken a substance bought online to end her pregnancy. She had her phone and laptop seized, with police performing an invasive digital strip search, including reading text messages she had exchanged with her boyfriend expressing worry about her pregnancy. The case was dropped after postmortem tests found the baby had probably been stillborn because of natural causes. During my abortion, I bled so heavily that I passed out and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance [Editor's note: abortion is a safe and common medical procedure, but like any, complications can occur albeit rarely]. Despite taking the pills legally and as prescribed, the bleeding was so severe that I had to have an additional procedure to remove remaining tissue from my uterus. My legs were in stirrups. Exposed. Shaking. Humiliated. I felt guilty. I felt ashamed. And on top of that, I was scared, scared that even though I was well within the legal limit, my experience could still raise questions. I wasn't just vulnerable physically or emotionally. I felt vulnerable to being investigated. The pills I had taken were prescribed to me after a phone consultation. I wasn't anywhere near the 24-week limit. But the pain was so intense, the bleeding so severe, I started to question myself. What if I'd miscalculated the dates? What if someone thought I'd lied? It was terrifying. I couldn't think straight. It might sound paranoid, but this very thing happened. Nicola Packer, who was found not guilty of having an illegal abortion this month, and who was prescribed abortion pills over the phone. She was 26 weeks pregnant but believed, at the time, she was six weeks pregnant. It took five years to clear her name. You might not feel sorry for me. Maybe you think, well, it was 'my choice.' Fine. But think about this. That law that is still in place today, in England, in Wales, it's older than women's right to vote. Older than the NHS. Older than almost every right we've fought to gain. And it's being used more and more frequently. When Roe v Wade happened in the US, it caused people at home to be outraged, and rightly so. But we also thought we were safe. 'That would never happen in the UK,' they said. 'We're more progressive.' But that outrage is built on a false sense of security. The very drugs that saved my life, in different ways, in both of those experiences, are being banned across parts of the US. And here, in the UK, our laws are hanging by a thread. A change in government could change everything. Because our reproductive rights are still built on a 19th century law that treats pregnancy as a crime waiting to happen. When I had my abortion, yes, I had access to medical care. Yes, I had the dignity of being at home. But I also had fear. If the pills had arrived too late. If something had gone wrong. If someone had reported me. I could have been investigated, interrogated, even charged. All while going through something that was already unbearable. And here's what matters: in both of those moments, I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was putting my life first. My wants. My needs. My health. I wasn't committing a crime. I was trying to survive. That's what 'pro-life' should mean. This isn't a distant threat. Between 2012 and 2022, at least 17 women in England and Wales were investigated for ending their pregnancies. In the last three years alone, six have been prosecuted. BPAS has received almost 100 police requests for patients' confidential records — including for teenage girls, survivors of domestic abuse, and women who miscarried unexpectedly at home. This is happening. Right now. Here. In the UK. Abortion is still criminalised under the 1861 Act. The 1967 Abortion Act introduced a legal defence of two doctors who approved the procedure, but it didn't take abortion out of the criminal code. In England and Wales, it's still legally punishable by life imprisonment. That's why I'm backing the End 1861 campaign. This month, MPs have the chance to vote for an amendment that will finally decriminalise abortion. Reports suggest this reform is expected to pass through Parliament this week, but it is not guaranteed until it happens. That's why every single one of us needs to put pressure on our MP. We need them to vote to pass this reform. Not later. Not next year. Now. It won't change how services are delivered. It won't change time limits. It will just recognise that abortion is what it's always been: healthcare. Every day this law remains in place, women remain at risk. The fear. The silence. The shame. The threat of being treated like a criminal just for surviving something horrific. Whether you've had an abortion or a miscarriage, that legal shadow hangs over you. Abortion is common. Miscarriage is even more so. What's not common, and what should never be acceptable, is a law that punishes women for surviving the hardest, most vulnerable moments of their lives. This campaign matters. I stand behind it. Because no one should grieve a pregnancy loss with a police officer watching. Because no one should be scared to go to hospital. Because no one should ever be punished for putting their life first. It's time to trust women. It's time to decriminalise pregnancy. It's time to drag this law out of the 19th century and into the reality we live in. Join the campaign to End 1861 and email your MP using this template, urging them to vote in favour of the NC1 amendment to the Crime and Policing bill this week
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'What they want is your rights': What you need to know about the anti-abortion movement's new tactics
Little-known fact: abortion is technically a criminal offence in England and Wales, governed by a law from 1861, before women got the right to vote. As powerful anti-choice groups seek to roll back reproductive rights here - as we've seen in the US and Europe - we've joined forces with BPAS, the UK's leading abortion care service, on new campaign End 1861, to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. Head here to take action to raise your voice for choice and fight for bodily autonomy. It's easy to think that wouldn't happen here. That we're not the US, and their policies do not impact us. But while the UK is overwhelmingly pro-choice (in a 2023 YouGov 87% of Britons said that abortion should absolutely be allowed) it doesn't mean we're safe from manipulative tactics from incredibly powerful (and rich) anti-choice groups. As author and podcaster Deborah Frances-White discovered through a range of interviews, there are powerful forces at play, working hard and strategically behind the scenes, to take your rights away – and they're not just going for abortion, but and the right to contraception, too. They're using distraction tactics and ancient laws to get their way… and they're succeeding. It's scary. But it's also why we all need to come together and fight back, and why Deborah is supporting , in collaboration with BPAS. Here, in an extract from her new book , she outlines what she's learned and what we need to do about it… You will know that in the US, Roe v. Wade, the ruling that guaranteed the right to an abortion, was overturned in 2022. This means that in many states abortion access is now limited and, in some, illegal. What you may not know is that the religious far-right have also been getting organised and strategic right here, specifically targeting the UK and Europe, with the mission of diminishing and eventually eradicating abortion rights. I interviewed Neil Datta, the Executive Director of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, a pan-European network which brings together legislators from all democratic parties to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights. The Forum focuses on access to contraception, abortion rights, reducing maternal deaths, improving cervical cancer treatment and prevention. Because of this work, Neil has done research into religious extremists who are working to undermine women's rights to healthcare. He explained that there were well-known 'pro-life' groups who started out picketing abortion clinics. Then in 2013, they 'rebranded' and expanded their remit: 'They invested time in hiring lawyers and political scientists so that they understand how power works. And we saw them gradually, between 2013 and 2018, really develop that skill so that they were able to write draft laws and bills, they were able to initiate proceedings in front of national and European-level courts, and they were able to start petitions, which then provoke a certain reaction from public authorities, such as a referendum . . . They style themselves as NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and think tanks, or in some cases political parties. In Europe, they usually mask their religious ties. But when you scratch beneath the surface, you see religious connections in almost all of them. We also have a number of organisations coming from the United States, from the US Christian right, setting up permanent offices in different European countries and specifically certain cities, such as Brussels, Geneva, Strasbourg, Vienna, and London. These are all the centres of decision-making power. They decided to organise, get pragmatic and, crucially, harness the tools of influencing empathy to get what they want. And what they want is your rights. These organisations make up what is known as the 'anti-gender movement'. Gender here is shorthand for 'women's issues'.'This anti-gender - or anti-'women's issues' - movement is also against LGBTQ+ rights, including equal marriage. There are numerous academic studies and symposiums on the anti-gender movement and reports show the groups within it have spent $78 million (US), that we know of, in the last decade. They have decided to get what they can now, with the aim of getting what they want eventually. Are their efforts working? Shockingly, yes. We have seen the huge uptick in women being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending their pregnancy. Abortion provider MSI says it knows of up to sixty criminal inquiries in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero before. In contrast, between 1861 and November 2022, just three women in Great Britain were convicted of an illegal abortion. Since December 2022 (at the time of writing), one woman has been convicted and six women are awaiting trial. Also, at the time of writing, there are three new bills in the House of Lords that would potentially restrict women's ability to have legal abortions in the UK. By comparison, the last anti-abortion bill presented to the Commons was in 1990. Dr Jonathan Lord, co-chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, has warned that police are seizing women's phones, searching for period apps and combing through their internet history. Health care providers are reporting that police are also testing 'distressed' women, who have suffered miscarriages, for abortion drugs. Some have called an ambulance for late-stage pregnancy loss and the police have arrived first. Those anti-abortion campaigners who were previously just using anger, have now learned to use seemingly rational and empathetic techniques to influence our policymakers and those working in our communities. If all this sounds to you like a flashback scene in The Handmaid's Tale, then you'll be as worried as I am about how organised and well-funded this 'anti-gender' far-right religious movement is. Those of us who are pro-choice need to get equally (if not more) organised to properly decriminalise abortion in the UK, the way France has responded to the anti-gender movement by enshrining the right to abortion into the constitution. We can't just ignore these people, or block them out. If we do they will organise. They will galvanise. And we will end up living in their world. We have to get savvy, and get sorted, and that will mean compromise. Remember, ten years ago, the people now challenging our right to choose were shouting outside abortion clinics with homemade signs. Now, they've become influential by having conversations they didn't want to have and working with people they don't agree with – and they're getting things done. Things we need undone as soon as possible. If we do not organise, strategize, upskill, rethink and make connections with people we don't wholly agree with, we may find ourselves – and our human rights – hurtling back into the past. Agenda Europa was created in January 2013 out of a meeting that took place in London involving approximately twenty North American and European anti-abortion leaders and strategic advisors who aimed to 'develop a Christian-inspired European think tank' and 'devise new strategies for European anti-abortion movements'. Why 2013? Because both the UK and France were in the process of legalising same-sex marriage and that was the breaking point. The anti-gender movement's decision to act was born out of fury, but their focus was achievable goals. They started to ask not 'what do we want?' but 'what can we have?' Once we allow the anti-gender lobby to shape our policy and become people of influence in our society, they will use that position to get the other things on their agenda. Documents have been uncovered that reveal a detailed, extremist strategy called 'Restoring the Natural Order: an Agenda for Europe', which seeks to overturn existing laws on basic human rights related to sexuality and reproduction, such as the right to divorce; for a woman to access contraception, assisted reproduction technologies or have an abortion; equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or intersex (LGBTI) persons; and the right to change one's gender or sex without fear of legal repercussions. The latest High Court ruling, which says the legal definition of a woman for the purposes of the Equalities Act 2010 is based on biological sex, is a worrying sign that they are beginning to get their way. Neil Datta and his team predict that the next issues they attack in the UK will be surrogacy and sex work because there is already some dissent in the feminist community on these things. Their arguments about the sacredness of women's bodies as far as surrogacy and sex work goes will lead neatly into abortion: 'While we're up in your uterus anyway, we've got some notes.' The anti-gender movement is driving hard to roll back queer rights and abortion rights, and they are making small incremental gains that will turn into large strides forward if we don't get organised ourselves. We need to use our voices, start having conversations and not sleepwalk our way into their Might Also Like A ranking of the very best hair straighteners - according to our Beauty Editors Best party dresses to shop in the UK right now 11 products you'd be mad to miss from the Net A Porter beauty sale
