Philosophy July 2025

24 Weeks

Cyril Birks University of Edinburgh 2 min read 388 words

Today the British Government announced1 it will extend bereavement leave to parents who experience miscarriage before 24 weeks — the same point at which the law recognises a pregnancy loss as a stillbirth. This is welcome news. Miscarriages are tragic; around 250,000 pregnancies end this way each year in Britain2, most within the first trimester. To feel life slip through one’s fingers so suddenly and viscerally is a shattering grief. (I am lucky this is not personal knowledge and pray it never will be.)

Separately, on 17 June 2025, MPs voted 379 to 137 to decriminalise abortion for women in England and Wales. Previously, women could access abortion in Great Britain under the Abortion Act 1967, which prescribed specific circumstances and requirements.3 If the ammendment continues through the Lords, women would be protected from prosecution in unfortunate but potentially suspcious edge cases, like stillbirth. Doctors may still be prosecuted. All things considered, this seems like a beneficial change to current law.

However, stepping back, it would seem the Government has put itself in quite a bind. Within 20 days, the Government has simultaneously (re)affirmed two positions:

  • Before 24 weeks, a child is a life to grieve, further affirmed by statutory rights.

  • Before 24 weeks, a child is not a life for the state to protect.

In effect, the Government concedes that a child is a life when wanted — and something less when not.

Of course, many people hold such conflicting views. Even the most fervent, politically active pro-choice voices wouldn’t dream of consoling a wife, sister, or friend with, “Oh, don’t worry. Chin up! It’s not really a life, is it?”

I am deeply sympathetic to those caught in this moral complexity. Couples naturally mourn — not just the child, but the lost hopes, dreams, and futures they had begun to imagine. Those parents were, in fact, parents. They grieve precisely because their child was, in fact, a child. Mourning is natural and appropriate; life was lost.

But by embedding this grief in employment law without revisiting abortion limits, ministers have unintentionally cracked open a floodgate. Activists on all sides now have powerful ammunition. If miscarriage before 24 weeks is bereavement, how can ending a pregnancy during that period remain a routine medical procedure?

I fear this may come back to bite.

Notes
1 Press Release: Employment Rights Bill to increase bereavement leave for families who face pregnancy loss
2 *"Every year in the UK, an estimated 250,000 pregnancies end through miscarriage, making it the most common complication of pregnancy experienced by an estimated 1 in 5 women. There are also around 11,000 hospital admissions each year for losses due to ectopic pregnancies, 19,000 admissions for molar pregnancies and, in 2021, around 3,300 women made the difficult decision to terminate a much-wanted pregnancy for medical reasons”* — Government response to the independent Pregnancy Loss Review: care and support when baby loss occurs before 24 weeks' gestation (2023)
3 *"An abortion is legal if it is performed by a registered medical practitioner (a doctor), and that it is authorised by two doctors, acting in good faith, on one (or more) of the following grounds (with each needing to agree that at least one and the same ground is met):* *(a) that the pregnancy has not exceeded its twenty-fourth week and that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family; or* *(b) that the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; or* *(c) that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated; or* *(d) that there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.”* — British Pregnancy Advisory Service
cyril dot birks @ed.ac.uk