Sheffield abortion campaigners won’t stop protests: ‘A step forward but not far enough’
Pulished by the Sheffield Star at https://www.thestar.co.uk/your-world/sheffield-abortion-campaigners-wont-stop-protests-a-step-forward-but-not-far-enough-8758749?r=1445
Abortion in England and Wales has recently been decriminalised but one group in Sheffield won’t stop campaigning.
A protest is held by Sheffield’s Right to Choose every Saturday during lent, to counteract the vigil led by ’40 days for life’, a pro-life organisation with roots in the US. They stand silently, side-by-side, holding opposing posters.
Right to Choose is an activist group whose mission is to fight against the surge of anti abortionist movements in the city.
An alert is sent to a counter-protest WhatsApp group and anyone is welcome to choose on the Saturday morning protests, even non-members.
The group officially started holding these events around two years ago to specifically oppose 40 days for life during their weekly gatherings.
It also holds workshops and meeting where they promote the right to abortion and offer a safe space for attendees to talk about personal experiences.
In 2025, MPs decided to review the Crime and Policing Bill to fully decriminalise abortion, meaning that a woman who got an abortion outside of the legal limits posed by the law would not be prosecuted, but a doctor aiding her still can.
The Bill passed in the House of Commons that year. It passed in the House of Lords and received royal assent on April 29 this year.
While the group rejoices in the partial decriminalisation, calling it a step forward, they are not prepared to back down.
Pavlina Kostarakou joined the activist group around a year ago when she decided she wanted to be more involved in feminist activist groups.
She said: “We want a full decriminalisation. Get it out of the criminal bill. It’s not a crime; no one should be prosecuted.”
Pavlina says anti-abortion movements have been on the rise for the last ten years, often using misinformation on what abortion is and does, to support their points. However, there also has been a new surge of pro-life groups emerging in the last couple of years.
She said: “It’s been brewing. I think the surge has been more due to the fact that Roe v Wade has been overturned.
“We need to be aware that these anti-abortion organisations and activists have been lurking in the background and right now, there is fertile ground and these groups have started to enter more the forefront.”
Additionally, the group is focused on making abortion accessible, not just legal. They say NHS cuts create a barrier to woman needing to access a legal abortion.
The discussion around abortion started in England last century, with the introduction of the infant life (Preservation) Act in 1929, for England and Wales.
The law stated that abortion was fully illegal, no matter the circumstances, unless the abortion was deemed an accident. The punishment was a prison life sentence.
Decades later, the Abortion Act 1967 created a list of circumstances under which a woman could get an abortion, without fully legalising it.
It had to be approved by two doctors, with both agreeing that the continuation of the pregnancy, which would have to be under 24 weeks, would pose danger or a risk of danger to the mother’s physical or mental health, making an abortion necessary, or that the foetus would be born with physical or mental abnormalities.
The act also protected doctors who refused to perform an abortion, unless the procedure was necessary to save the pregnant person’s life or prevent serious harm.
A member of Sheffield’s Right to Choose shared his point of view anonymously as a medical professional.
He said: “Abortion is a medical procedure, it’s a human right, it saves lives.
“When people are campaigning against abortion they think abortion is an elective procedure because you don’t want a kid, but abortion bans also cover abortions where the foetus isn’t going to make it to term.
“It’s putting doctors in the position where they are waiting until foetus has definitely died before they intervene, which increases the risk of sepsis and complications which has caused an increase in maternal mortality.”
He added: “I think the current issue is that there has been a step forward but not far enough, it needs to be legalised outright for both parties’ meaning pregnant women and the people providing the abortions.”