Deliberately ending a pregnancy is perhaps the ultimate personal decision. It’s a choice influenced by the most intimate details of people’s lives: the strength of their relationships; the state of their finances; their plans for the future; their physical and mental health. Yet the personal is political, and abortion is often treated as a subject that is ‘up for debate’.

You may have encountered somebody who wanted to go toe-to-toe with you on the topic: perhaps a relative, a bloke at the pub or a troll on social media. There are literal debates in parliament on abortion, such as the one seen last summer, when female MPs – mostly from opposition parties – challenged the government on its refusal to change the law after a woman was jailed for taking abortion pills after the legal limit. Sometimes, conversations about abortion can seem disturbingly dry and abstract, obscuring the experiences of the women involved. Or the opposite is true, and deliberately stigmatising language is used to make people feel guilty and ashamed – such as when anti-choice protesters try to convince anyone entering an abortion clinic to turn around.

That’s why it’s vital that abortion is framed as what it really is: essential healthcare for anyone who can become pregnant. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines abortion as a critical public health and human rights issue – and today, the feminist grassroots campaign group Level Up has launched new media guidelines for reporting on the issue in Britain.

Created in collaboration with journalists and campaigners, backed by Britain’s biggest abortion service providers and supported by Stylist, the guidelines are designed to help journalists cover abortion responsibly – not unlike the Samaritans guidelines that encourage ethical reporting on suicide.

Level Up’s guidelines emphasise the need to write and talk about reproductive healthcare in a way that reduces stigma, shares accurate medical information and builds a society that shows compassion towards people who need abortions. They state that media coverage should focus on the fact that abortion is a common and essential healthcare procedure, not just an abstract ethical issue; signpost people to organisations who will support them explore their options; and report people’s personal experiences of abortion.

Media outlets should also use relevant, representative imagery to accompany coverage of abortion, rather than photos that reinforce stigma and perpetuate harmful myths. For example, it’s not uncommon to see articles about abortion accompanied by pictures of heavily pregnant women – despite the fact that more than two-thirds (67%) of abortions in England and Wales take place before 8 weeks gestation, and 98% take place before 18 weeks.

Ikamara Larasi, campaigner at Level Up, notes that “the media has a vital role in shaping narratives” around abortion. “It’s critical that we are each able to determine what happens with our own bodies, and the course of our lives,” she says. “Just as people who are pregnant should be able to access healthcare and community to ensure safety of the parent and child, people who need abortions should be able to access them without criminalisation and stigma.”

The guidelines have been launched at a complex time for reproductive justice in the UK. In the aftermath of Roe v Wade being overturned in the US, the government in Westminster insisted that it had no plans to change our abortion laws. The message was: abortion isn’t under threat in the UK, but we’re not going to make it easier to access, either.

Abortion is currently legal in England, Scotland and Wales under certain conditions (a termination can only take place up to the 28th week of pregnancy, and must be approved by two registered medical practitioners who believe the pregnant person’s mental or physical health would be seriously harmed by continuing with the pregnancy). But outside these conditions, abortion is still a criminal offence punishable by up to 12 years in prison under a Victorian-era law, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

Recent years have seen a worrying rise in women being prosecuted or investigated for ending a pregnancy: since December 2022, six women have been charged with illegally procuring an abortion in Britain, compared to just three women who were convicted of the same crime between 1861 and November 2022. These women include Carla Foster, who was jailed for procuring an abortion and released after public outcry, and Bethany Cox, who was cleared in January 2024. Abortion provider MSI Reproductive Choices knows of up to 60 criminal inquiries related to abortion in England and Wales since 2018, compared to almost zero before.

Now, however, change is in the air. Parliament appears to be on the cusp of decriminalising abortion in England, Scotland and Wales, with a landmark amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill – which would mean the 1861 law no longer applies to women ending their own pregnancies – due to be voted on in March.

“At a time when we’re seeing investigations into unexplained pregnancy losses here in the UK, a global rollback on reproductive rights and a rise in misinformation, the role of the media couldn’t be more important,” says Louise McCudden, head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices UK.

“Our reproductive health decisions aren’t up for debate”: why the way we talk about abortion matters