During the pandemic, 86% of women in southeast London chose to access at home abortion care over the telephone ahead of in-person services. This new form of abortion care halved waiting times and reduced the risk of women being pushed into using illegal or unsafe methods to end their pregnancies. Getting rid of it would have been a massive rollback of reproductive rights and a rare social gain of the pandemic.

I’m glad MPs from across the House ultimately voted to overturn plans to get rid of them later this year. Scrapping this safe, effective and accessible form of abortion care would have been a blatant attack on women’s ability to access care. In the run up to the vote, I tabled an Early Day Motion opposing the Government’s unscientific and poorly evidenced proposal to get of at home early medical abortion care.