Abortion: decriminalise, destigmatise, demedicalise

is one of the co-chairs of Doctors for Choice UK and a trustee and treasurer of Abortion Talk. 

Hayley is a GP with a special interest in women’s health. As well as working as a GP, she works in an NHS Community Gyanecology service in London, providing contraception and abortion care. She is also a forensic medical examiner, working with victims of rape and sexual assault.

has a background in policy and research and currently works for the British Medical Association, the registered trade union for doctors in the UK. Before joining the BMA, she led the policy, campaigns and research teams at Stonewall (the LGBTQ+ campaigning charity) and at the sexual and reproductive health and rights charity FPA.

is a Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, where she teaches and researches in the area of health care law and ethics, with a particular focus on abortion law. She has completed two AHRC-funded projects: ‘"How Can a State Control Swallowing?" Medical Abortion and the Law', and ‘The Abortion Act (1967): a Biography’, which resulted in her most recent, co-authored book. With Kaye Wellings, she edited the open access collection, 'Decriminalising Abortion in the UK: what would it mean?' Sally was also a member of the team who worked on the NIHR-funded SACHA project (Shaping Abortion for Change), and was formerly a trustee of BPAS and Abortion Support Network.

Tom (aka 'Tee') works as a sexual health doctor and abortion provider in Homerton hospital (London). They are non-binary and prefer to be referred to as 'they/them'. They also study philosophy at the University of Kingston. Their interests in this capacity include the (broadly defined) marxist and feminist traditions.

is an abortion and miscarriage doula, as well as the founder of the Ad'iyah Collective. The Ad'iyah Collective is a Muslim Reproductive Justice collective that was founded in 2022 in response to the erasure and harm that many Muslims face during their reproductive journeys. They provide support, love and dua to Muslims and their communities during their pregnancy ending journeys, including abortion, miscarriage and stillbirth. They do this through support circles, healing spaces, free doula support, and knowledge sharing opportunities.

is the Chief Exec of Reproductive Justice Initiative (Formerly Decolonising Contraception). She started out as a trained volunteer for a sexual health project over a decade ago. A recipient of the 2022 Olive Morris Memorial Award in remembrance of community leader and activist Olive Elaine Morris. Edem has been a long time campaigner and activist for social justice.

Reproductive Justice Initiative is building a world where everyone’s reproductive health and rights are upheld and not undermined by social, economic and political factors.

are an abolitionist feminist direct action group that protest gendered violence, prisons & colonial and capitalist structures. We are committed to anti-racist, queer & feminist liberation and solidarity with all those oppressed under capitalism.Formed in 2014 in London to fight austerity in the UK, we now have members across the UK and internationally.Follow us on instagram and X @sistersuncut

is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Brook the national sexual health charity; and member of the Abortion Talk advisory board.
Lisa is an educator, trainer and campaigner, championing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people including to high quality, inclusive relationships and sex education and sexual health care.
She wrote and co-Directed Kind To Women, a short documentary film about the1967 Abortion Act and has written extensively about abortion

has been an abortion activist since 2002 and is experienced in grassroots abortion fund work, stakeholder engagement, volunteer management, movement building, storytelling and fundraising. In 2009 she founded the first the first abortion fund in Europe (Abortion Support Network) and grew it from five volunteers to a staffed international charity with an annual budget of £500,000. She is one of the founding members of the Abortion Without Borders initiative, a network of nine organizations helping people living in Poland get abortions. Her current organization, Supporting Abortions for Everyone – SAFE, is a pan-European charity providing money, knowledge and infrastructure to grassroots abortion activists, so they can help anyone who needs an abortion get an abortion.

is a British Academy International Fellow at Birmingham Law School and an Affiliated researcher of the Global Health and Rights Project at The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Her project sits at the intersection of law, social movements and human rights and applies a socio-legal approach to explore how abortion law and regulation impact SMA practices; how SMA practices affect abortion law and regulation; how SMA practices have impacted international human rights law and global health governance.

is a Sexual & Reproductive Health doctor with special interests in abortion care and trans health, and a member and Trustee of Reproductive Justice Initiative, formerly known as Decolonising Contraception. With a background in public health and health activism, Felicia is dedicated to realising reproductive justice and health justice through her clinical, policy and academic work, grounded in the understanding of health as a human right. Outside of clinical medicine, she spends her time organising and advocating with anti-racist and feminist groups to tackle interrelated systems of oppression that manifest as transphobia, anti-migrant hostility and the rolling back of reproductive rights.

is Co-Convener at Alliance for Choice and is based in Belfast. Having personal experience of forced travel in order to access abortion, she campaigned for the decriminalisation of NI abortion and continues to work towards the implementation of the legislation & abortion rights, access and justice for all. Naomi was the co-author of Alliance for Choice Abortion Doula Manual and co-founded the ‘Lucht Cabhrach’ Abortion Companion programme, which provides support and assistance to women and pregnant people throughout Northern Ireland seeking abortions.

is an Associate Professor at UCL Medical School and a specialty doctor in Homerton Abortion Care Service in East London. She is co-chair of Doctors for Choice UK and co-director of Abortion Talk. Jayne is passionate about improving abortion education for healthcare students and healthcare providers and about destigmatising abortion.

has been Chief Executive of the charity Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) since 2004. ARC provides impartial information and support to parents throughout antenatal screening and its consequences and works in partnership with healthcare professionals to help promote high-quality care. As well as managing the charity, Jane is also involved in directly supporting parents, training health professionals, research, policy and media work. She has a particular interest in women’s experience of termination for fetal anomaly.

is a Doctoral Student in the Cultural Competency Unit of King's College London. His PhD project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and is focused on understanding and addressing the influence of colonialism on postgraduate specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the UK.He received an MA in European Studies (Cum Laude) from the University of Groningen, an MA in Languages Cultures and Society from the University of Strasbourg and a BA in International Cooperation and Development from the University of Rome – Sapienza.Before returning to academia for his PhD, Sam held various roles in medical education with different organisations including the General Medical Council (GMC), the British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP), and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH). He is the current Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Reproductive Justice Initiative and EDI Trustee for AbortionTalk.

is Professor of Social Policy Research and Associate Dean Research at the Open University. Her research projects are focused on reproductive health, abortion policy and politics, and sexual health, and she has published widely in these areas. Her most recent publication is on abortion and social connectedness and is freely available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2023.2258189 Other outputs include the award-winning MyBodyMyLife abortion story-telling exhibition. She is co-director, with Jayne Kavanagh, of the charity Abortion Talk.

is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster University. Her research focuses on abortion policy. She has written extensively on this subject; she is the co-author of the book Reimagining Global Abortion Politics (2018) and, with Emma Campbell, co-edited the two-volume collection Decriminalizing Abortion in Northern Ireland (2022). Her latest publication, Reimagining Faith and Abortion: A Global Perspective, (2024), is co-edited with colleague Kellie Turtle. Fiona has been a member of the Northern Ireland Abortion and Contraceptive Taskgroup (NIACT) since 2020.

is a Research Fellow at the Open University and leads the Reproduction, Sexualities and Sexual Health Research Group. Carrie’s research interests focus around sexual and reproductive health (particularly abortion and contraception), pain, embodiment, and reproductive justice. Carrie’s work is primarily qualitative and interdisciplinary, with groundings in medical sociology. Between 2018 and 2021, Carrie was Principal Investigator on the Wellcome Trust-funded Sexuality and Abortion Stigma Study (SASS), a qualitative secondary analysis study which looked at stigma and normalisation in first-hand accounts of abortion.

Talkline trainer, and workshop facilitator. She has been having conversations with people having abortions both before and after for 40 years.

is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in Belfast and is the Clinical Lead for Abortion Care within her Trust. She is the lead for the regional second trimester surgical service in Northern Ireland, being the only clinician currently working within and providing the service. She has been at the forefront of service development of abortion services in Northern Ireland prior to decriminalisation in 2019, working in partnership with the Public Health Agency (PHA), the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG), the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and the Department of Health NI and England to set up abortion services throughout Northern Ireland. Laura is Co-Chair for Doctors for Choice Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Rep for the British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP). She is a member of the RCOG’s Abortion Taskforce and the Northern Ireland Abortion and Contraception Taskgroup (NIACT).

Year 5 UCL medical student, with an interest in women’s rights and health politics. Holly has recently completed a PhD in gynaecological cancer biomechanics, and holds an iBSc in Surgery & Anaesthesia. She has volunteered with Abortion Talk for four months.

is an academic and activist. His research focuses on how constructions of masculinities are implicated in reproductive injustices, particularly around abortion. He is on the Advisory Board of Abortion Talk and volunteers at SAFE (Supporting Abortions For Everyone). With Dr Nandagiri, he co-runs the 'abortion book club'.
X: @JoeStrongDemog

is a feminist researcher focusing on reproductive in/justices in the Global Souths (broadly understood). Her recent multidisciplinary empirical work (re) conceptualises ‘safety’ and ‘risk’ in abortion, interrogates the role of secrecy in abortion, and (re)theorises self-managed abortion as collective and as care (with Dr Berro Pizzarossa). With Dr Strong, she co-runs the ‘abortion book club’. Rishita is currently a Lecturer (Asst. Prof) in Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London.
website: https://rnandagiri.com
X: @rishie_
BlueSky: rishie.bsky.social.