MPs have voted in favour of measures to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancies.

The Commons voted 379 to 137 to back Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to criminal justice legislation on Tuesday night.

Ms Antoniazzi said it would remove the threat of “investigation, arrest, prosecution or imprisonment” of any woman who acts in relation to her own pregnancy.

She also condemned abuse faced by MPs from anti-abortion campaigners outside parliament ahead of the vote.

The change in law, which will take effect once the Bill has completed all its parliamentary stages, follows recent scandals of police investigations and prosecutions of women suspected of illegal abortions, after the 24-week limit.

Ms Antoniazzi assured MPs the limit would still remain and that abortions would still require the approval and signatures of two doctors.

She also urged the Commons: “Let’s ensure that not a single desperate woman ever again is subject to traumatic, criminal investigation at the worst moments in their lives.”

MPs approved the amendment in a free vote, meaning parliamentary whips did not apply.  

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer indicated he would have voted in favour had he not been away at the G7 summit, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was against.

The move was welcomed by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service chief executive Heidi Stewart who said: “This is a landmark moment for women’s rights in this country and the most significant change to our abortion law since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed.”

A separate amendment from Labour MP Stella Creasy to go further in decriminalising abortion fell after the passage of Ms Antoniazzi’s proposal.