18 June 2025, 15:52 | Updated: 19 June 2025, 10:35

By Shelagh Fogarty

The vote to decriminalise abortion to term goes far beyond protecting women in crisis.

There are moments on my programme where I feel the need to say something upfront – not to soften the argument, but to make it clear I understand the nuance and the pain that often sit behind these issues. This is one of those moments.

I'm talking about abortion – and in particular, about the vote in the Commons that effectively decriminalised abortion in England and Wales in all circumstances, right up to birth. No woman, no matter how advanced her pregnancy, will now face criminal prosecution for ending it. And while some will see that as progress, I can’t be the only one left deeply troubled.

Let me say first what I’ve said many times before: I understand, in part because of the callers to this programme, just how complex and agonising a pregnancy can be. I remember vividly a caller named Sarah from Bristol. Well into the final stages of pregnancy, she found herself in a state of deep psychological distress – dissociated, traumatised, desperate not to be pregnant another day. She needed urgent, specialist medical help, and she got it. Her story changed how I thought about late-term abortion, because it........

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