- Conference
- 2026 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 17 October 2025
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference notes:
• That UNISON has existing policy in favour of decriminalising abortion
• The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill in June 2025 meaning that in England, Scotland and Wales, people will no longer be prosecuted for ending a pregnancy within the legal framework
• However, abortion is still a crime in some circumstances under legislation dating back to 1861. Within the current criminal law, women and pregnant people in Britain could face 12 years in prison for using abortion pills purchased online. A doctor could face 12 years in prison for providing safe abortion care without a second doctor’s approval. A nurse could face 12 years in prison for providing medical abortion on their best clinical judgement without the legal grounds first being signed off by two doctors.
• That abortion is the only health care where the person undergoing the care is not the one who gives consent – instead, it is two healthcare professionals
• That the right to choose to have an abortion is regularly under attack, both here and around the world
• That Nigel Farage has said that the current time limit for abortion should be restricted, stating it is, “ludicrous we allow abortion up to 24 weeks”.
• That a number of anti-choice MPs and politicians such as Nadine Dorries and Maria Caulfield have defected to Reform UK
This Conference believes:
• That these criminal sanctions are completely unnecessary for highly regulated UK healthcare such as abortion. Trapped within the legal framework of criminal law, abortion care is being regarded unlike any other medical procedure available in the UK today
• By situating abortion in criminal law with the need for two doctors to sign off legal grounds, rather than being situated wholly within medical regulation, we are saying to abortion care professionals – particularly to nursing staff – that we don’t trust their individual clinical judgement or competence. No other healthcare professionals are made to work within these limits
• That Reform UK has become a place of political refuge for anti-choice politicians, meaning that there is the possibility of abortion becoming a political issue like it is in the US
• That this is part of the Reform UK ‘anti-woke’ agenda attacking all the hard-won liberation and equality rights we now have.
• That the solution to this is decriminalisation. Decriminalisation would mean that abortion services are regulated in the same way as other medical practices. We need to allow doctors and nurses to deliver best practice without fear of being criminalised. For women and pregnant people, decriminalisation would mean empowering them to make their own informed healthcare choices. Women and pregnant people would no longer have their bodies ruled over by a law enacted when Queen Victoria was on the throne
• Even within the legal limits, access to abortion is limited by lack of provision in many areas. After decriminalisation in Northern Ireland, further battles were required to actually commission services. In Britain, rural areas are under-served. In the last four weeks of the legal limit, no Health Board in Scotland offers abortion on the full range of legal grounds, forcing people in need to travel long distances to England.
• Access for many migrants is obstructed by the Immigration Health Surcharge and the Hostile Environment.
This Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee:
• To use the structures within our union to ensure members are kept up to date with the campaign for decriminalisation
• To publicise the Abortion Rights UK and encourage branches to affiliate, in line with national policy
• To encourage members to write to their MPs in support of the decriminalisation of abortion
• Campaign for truly universal access. This requires an NHS properly resourced and mandated to provide free and safe terminations in every part of the UK, to anyone who requests it for any reason – funded by taxing the wealthy and big business. Immigration surveillance, restrictions and fees must end in all areas of abortion and reproductive healthcare.
