Petition · past parliament

Allow women to access medical abortions from home, to carry out at home.

Rejected 14 signatures

What the petition asks

The Government must allow women to access medical abortions through a telephone triage, instead of visiting a medical clinic to complete the first stage of a medical abortion. Women should simply be allowed to gain access to the necessary medication to carry out the procedure entirely at home.
Considering the situation with the outbreak of COVID-19, there are increasingly reduced services, due to lack of staff and Government enforced lockdowns, which includes closures of sexual health clinics and GPs. Soon, women will find it significantly harder to access abortions, which is already a stressful enough experience. We want abortions to be accessible from home, to allow women to have certainty they will be able to carry out an abortion through this challenging and uncertain time.

Why it was rejected

The UK Government or Parliament was already taking the action it asked for.

Since this petition was started, the Government has announced that women and girls will be able to take both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks in their own homes, without the need to first attend a hospital or clinic.

You can find out more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-approval-of-home-use-for-both-stages-of-early-medical-abortion--2

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

Find out the latest updates from Parliament on the COVID-19 outbreak, including ways that you can get involved: https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/covid-19/

Are you an academic or researcher? Find out how you can help Parliament scrutinise the Government’s response to coronavirus: https://www.parliament.uk/covid19-researcher-engagement

### What the Petitions Committee is doing

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/

Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/

Timeline

24 Mar 2020 Petition opened for signatures
24 Apr 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 14
Status Rejected
Rejected 24 Apr 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.