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The media plays a powerful role in shaping how people think about abortion in Britain.

Yet journalists are increasingly reporting on abortion in a way that fuels stigma and invites moral debate on an essential healthcare procedure as defined by the WHO.

Prosecutions for ending a pregnancy are on the rise in Britain. It’s critical that journalists report on abortion with accuracy, sensitivity, and compassion – and treat abortion as healthcare, not a moral debate.

Please use the template email below to send a message directly to Stuart Millar, Digital News Editor at BBC News, to call out recent harmful reporting on a woman criminalised for accessing an abortion.

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Dear Stuart Millar,

I'm writing to raise serious concerns about your article “Woman denies self-medicating to induce miscarriage”, published on 24 April 2025.

This article fails to treat abortion as the essential healthcare that it is. Instead, it sensationalises and moralises abortion care, contributing to the culture of shame, stigma, and criminalisation of abortion in Britain. I urge you to reflect on the editorial decisions made in this piece and take responsibility for their impact on public understanding and the safety of people seeking care.

In particular:
<ul>
 <li>Creating a sensationalist, scandal-driven narrative that fuels blame and outrage</li>
 <li>Referring to abortion pills as ‘poison’ without explaining that these are mifepristone and misoprostol, which are WHO-approved, safe medications, and that the WHO recommends decriminalisation. It also fails to signpost readers to healthcare providers for medical information</li>
 <li>Referring to a ‘female foetus’ and describing it as ‘healthy’ plays into anti-abortion rhetoric that individualises the pregnancy while erasing the pregnant woman’s autonomy</li>
 <li>Failing to include any context around abortion access. Framing Nicola’s case solely around legality and deception, without exploring the structural or personal reasons why people need to access abortions, erodes people’s trust in healthcare and ultimately stops them seeking help when they need it</li>
</ul>

This kind of reporting makes personal medical decisions into public spectacle. It undermines trust in healthcare and increases the likelihood that people will avoid seeking the healthcare they need.

The BBC has a responsibility to report on abortion with medical accuracy, sensitivity, and care – not as a moral controversy, but as a matter of public health.

I urge your team to consult <a href="https://welevelup.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Abortion-Media-Guidelines.pdf" target="_blank">Level Up’s media guidelines</a> for reporting on abortion, which were developed with BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices, along with medical experts, abortion providers, and people with lived experience to support responsible and stigma-free journalism.

Sincerely,

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