MPs have backed a move to pardon women convicted of having an illegal abortion, as well as those cautioned.
The Commons has approved a Lords amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would also expunge the records of investigations, arrests and charges of women under abortion law, whether or not they were found guilty.
It comes after a landmark vote by MPs in June last year to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancy.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who brought forward the original decriminalisation amendment, said this further change would “protect the women already harmed by these outdated laws”.
The Gower MP said: “Current law means that abortion offences are classed as serious and violent crimes, so even without the conviction, the fact that a woman has been arrested and interviewed under these offences, remains on her DBS check for life.
“This actively harms her job prospects, ability to travel to certain jurisdictions, and leaves her with a permanent record on police computer systems, or, in the case of conviction, a permanent criminal record that she ended her own pregnancy outside the law.
“Colleagues will remember that the women forced to endure criminal investigations under these offences are overwhelmingly already vulnerable, often victims of acute abuse and exploitation.
“Retention of these convictions and records cause them ongoing harm under a law which Parliament has been clear has no place in modern society.”
Labour MP for Monmouthshire Catherine Fookes added: “Even after being found not guilty, some women have investigations that show up on their DBS check and that impacts their life and future careers.
“And this is the reality for a young woman named Becca, who was investigated age 19 after giving birth to her son at 28 weeks.
“And she says removing the investigation from her record would help her be able to move on and live a proper family life.”
However, Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh warned against giving “free pardons” to women who procure very late term abortions.
The senior Tory referred to the case of Sarah Catt, who was jailed in 2012 after terminating her pregnancy within a week of her due date.
Catt, from North Yorkshire, who was married but had been having an affair for seven years, was around 40 weeks pregnant when she took drugs to induce her labour.
Catt pleaded guilty to administering a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage and was sentenced to eight years in prison, but this was reduced at appeal to three-and-a-half years.
Sir Edward said: “As a result of these amendments, somebody who procures a very late term abortion illegally will receive a free pardon.”
He added that the judge in Catt’s case said the seriousness of her crime “lay between manslaughter and murder”.
“In sentencing, the judge told Catt she clearly thought the man with whom she was having an affair was the father and she had shown no remorse”, he said.
Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers said he and “many people across the country” shared Sir Edward’s concerns, not only about the issue itself, but “the way that it was added into this Bill”.
He argued that it had been “slipped” into the Bill after committee stage and that there has not been “adequate scrutiny” of it.
Home Office minister Sarah Jones said the Government was “neutral” on the amendments relating to abortion, but that the Government had a duty to ensure the law is “operationally and legally workable”.
The amendment to pardon women convicted of ending their own pregnancies and to have their records removed from police records was passed without division.
