Overall, the study showed that doctors felt that the current abortion law in the UK does not improve services or protect women, but actually makes it more difficult for them to provide the best care. Services are not able to adapt to medical advances, they said, and doctors are forced to adhere to a 50-year-old law rather than use their own judgement.

“The regulation is about putting [up] barriers rather than doing things that would benefit the individual in terms of quality,” said one doctor.

Another doctor said that abortion should be treated like any other medical procedure, and permitted to develop and change with advances in medicine. “I’m not saying [abortion] should be unregulated… but I’m saying it should be regulated in the same way as health generally,” they said.

Medical bodies including the British Medical Association (BMA), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives have all already come out in support of the decriminalisation of abortion.

Later this year, a cross-party group of MPs led by Labour MP Stella Creasy is set to add an amendment to the government’s forthcoming Domestic Abuse bill, which would repeal the relevant sections of the 1861 Offences Against the People Act. If approved, this amendment would decriminalise abortion across the UK, including in Northern Ireland. Labour MP Diana Johnson has also said she will bring a private members’ bill on the issue.

“Decriminalising abortion does not mean deregulating abortion,” said Dr Lohr.

“But it would mean that the service could be organised in the same way as other healthcare procedures, giving healthcare professionals the ability to provide women with the best possible care.”

Images: Getty Images

Why doctors are calling for the UK’s abortion laws to be changed