Campaigning for Abortion rights and Women’s Health in the UK

Campaigners, many of them women from marginalised communities, have played a central role in reshaping the way the UK understands and delivers reproductive health services.

Pre-20th Century: Control, Silence, and Stigma

In early modern Britain, women’s reproductive lives were governed by religious morality, patriarchal laws, and ignorance about female biology. Reproductive health care, such as it existed, was provided largely by midwives and herbalists, who often faced persecution if their practices challenged male authority or social norms. Women's fertility and childbirth were seen as private, domestic matters, often bound by shame and silence.

Medical knowledge of female anatomy was limited and often distorted by sexist assumptions. Menstrual health, infertility, miscarriage, and maternal mortality were rarely discussed publicly or treated as health priorities.

The introduction of formal medical institutions in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the male professionalisation of childbirth through obstetrics, side-lining traditional midwifery and intensifying control over women’s bodies. Pregnancy and childbirth became increasingly medicalised, while working-class and unmarried women were often treated with suspicion or moral judgement.

Victorian Era to Early 20th Century: Criminalisation and the Emergence of Reformers

In the 19th century, women’s reproductive rights were sharply curtailed. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 criminalised abortion in nearly all cases, and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 reinforced restrictions. Contraception was not widely available or publicly discussed due to religious and cultural taboos.

However, this era also saw the emergence of some early reproductive health campaigners, most notably:

• Annie Besant, a socialist and activist, who in 1877 was prosecuted (alongside Charles Bradlaugh) for publishing a pamphlet on birth control called Fruits of Philosophy. The case brought national attention to reproductive health.

• Marie Stopes, a controversial but pivotal figure, opened the UK’s first birth control clinic in 1921 in London. Her clinic offered free advice to married women and promoted the use of contraception to reduce unwanted pregnancies and maternal mortality. Her books, especially Married Love (1918), popularised ideas about female sexual agency, although her legacy is marred by support for eugenics.

  
  

The Bourne Case

A pivotal moment in abortion law came with R v. Bourne (1938). Dr. Aleck Bourne, a gynaecologist, performed an abortion on a 14-year-old girl who had been raped by soldiers. He was prosecuted under the 1861 Act but successfully argued that the abortion was necessary to preserve the girl's physical and mental health.

The judge accepted this defence, setting a precedent that allowed abortion under certain circumstances to protect the woman’s health. Though the law had not been formally changed, Bourne’s case created a legal loophole that sympathetic doctors could use, sparking debate and paving the way for reform.

Mid-20th Century: The Pill, the NHS, and Growing Autonomy

The creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 marked a turning point in women’s access to reproductive care. Maternity services, contraception, and gynaecological treatments became more widely available, although regional disparities and patriarchal attitudes persisted.

The 1961 introduction of the contraceptive pill, initially available only to married women, was revolutionary. It gave women unprecedented control over fertility and enabled more autonomy in sexual and professional life. Feminists, particularly in the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) of the 1970s, celebrated the pill as a tool of empowerment but also critiqued the lack of attention to its side effects and the medical profession’s paternalism.

Activists increasingly demanded access to safe abortion, better contraception, and comprehensive sex education. The landmark Abortion Act 1967, legalising abortion under certain conditions, was the result of sustained campaigning by groups such as

• Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), founded in 1936 by Stella Browne and others.

• National Abortion Campaign, launched in the 1970s to resist efforts to restrict abortion rights post-1967.

  
  

Late 20th Century: Grassroots Mobilisation and Reproductive Justice

During the 1980s and 1990s, the fight for reproductive health increasingly took a grassroots, intersectional turn. Campaigners highlighted how working-class women, Black and Asian women, and disabled women often had poorer reproductive outcomes and less access to services.

Campaigns against forced sterilisation, medical racism, and anti-abortion harassment gained traction. Sisters Against the Euthanasia Bill, Southall Black Sisters, and Women Against Racism and Fascism challenged the narrow, white-dominated focus of mainstream feminism.

Activists also began to frame reproductive rights more broadly, not just as the right to abortion or contraception, but as the right to raise children in safe, supported environments, free from poverty, violence, or state interference.

21st Century: New Challenges and Expanded Struggles

In the 21st century, reproductive health campaigns in the UK have taken on new dimensions. While abortion and contraception are legally accessible in much of the country, the devolution of healthcare has led to inequality—most notably in Northern Ireland, where abortion was only decriminalised in 2019 after decades of resistance and human rights activism.

Recent years have also seen the rise of telemedicine abortion—made legal during the COVID-19 pandemic and made permanent in 2022—allowing people to access early abortion pills at home. This development, supported by many reproductive rights campaigners, has vastly increased accessibility.

At the same time, prosecutions of women for alleged illegal abortions—often involving miscarriage or self-managed abortion—have reignited calls for full decriminalisation. As of 2024, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 remains in force in England and Wales, meaning abortion is still technically a criminal act outside the exceptions of the 1967 Act.

Ongoing Issues and the Future of Reproductive Health Campaigning

Campaigners continue to highlight deep inequalities in reproductive health.

·        Black women in the UK are four times more likely to die during childbirth than white women.

·        Disabled people face coercion and neglect in reproductive services.

·        Migrant women and asylum seekers often face denial of care due to immigration controls and hostile environment policies.

Calls for reproductive justice—a framework that centres the right to have children, not have children, and parent in safe environments—have gained ground, especially among younger feminists.

Key demands now include:

• Decriminalising abortion entirely

• Improving maternal health outcomes

• Ending medical racism and ableism

• Ensuring access regardless of immigration status

• Comprehensive, inclusive sex education

The history of reproductive health in the UK is not simply one of legal reform—it is a testament to the courage of campaigners who have challenged stigma, state control, and inequality. From Victorian-era birth control advocates to modern-day reproductive justice activists, these movements have reshaped not only policy but also public consciousness.

As access to reproductive care continues to be shaped by race, class, gender identity, and immigration status, the next chapter will be defined by whether the UK can deliver justice, dignity, and choice for all.

May 2025