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Comment by arrowsmith | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure what point you're making but there's nothing satirical about the second headline. The UK really did just legislate to decriminalise abortion up to the point of birth.

I don't see how that's a laughing matter.

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That is simply not true. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/03/27/misleading-hea...

TLDR: not legalised in the wider sense that any doctors or institutions involved with the abortion can perform the abortion until arbitrary late, but DOES remove liability from the pregnant women. So in case her abortion is aided or abetted those people are still criminally liable, but if she does it on her own somehow, then it is in fact legalised by the recent change. So, it depends on the situation, and if the mother is the sole actor or not. If she is the sole actor, it seems abortion has been arbitrarily legalized according to kuerbels' link. This also makes it important that people like kuerbel disseminate such a correction: the platitude that all abortions are now legalized would send the wrong message / legal advice to any accomplices in the abortion, even if the mother can do this with impunity, if you aid or abet her in it you can be held liable!

> So in case her abortion is aided or abetted those people are still criminally liable, but if she does it on her own somehow, then it is in fact legalised by the recent change. So, it depends on the situation, and if the mother is the sole actor or not.

Wheter acting solo or with aid of others, the mother is no longer liable for criminal charges. Full Stop.

See, much better articles that address the actual ammended bill and passing into law rather than focussing on the confusion spread by various media sources.

eg: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/17/law-pardon-wom...

This is a change that would have impacted a total of 20 woman in the entire 100 years of the 19th Century and almost the same number of woman from the last two decades.

I agree! Not at all a laughing matter; rather, a critical landmark in the preservation of individual rights.

“Up to the date of birth”

This is not an issue I care about at all, but even I can recognize that a voluntary abortion the day before a healthy birth would occur is truly a radical extreme that most people would object to.

How can you not care at all about the government forcing people to sacrifice their bodies in the most intimate way possible? To put one's sex organs to use against one's will? Disgusting.

You can likely also realise that the UK expunging prosecution and conviction of women convicted of back street abortions isn't equivilant to legalising abortion the day before birth .. however much the hand wringing click bait press try and spin it.

Do you really think that someone will willingly go through 9 months of pregnancy to abort "the day before" just because??? If someone is aborting the day before they ate due after dealing with everything for 9 months, you can believe that it was the best decision no matter how you look at it. Most -if not all- late term abortions are carried by people that WANT the baby but learn that is better (for the baby, the life of the mother...) to not carry it to the full end.

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