LONDON — The British government announced on Saturday that women in England would legally be allowed to take an abortion pill at home for the first time, following in the footsteps of decisions by Scotland and Wales.

Under the new regulation, set to take effect by the end of this year, women will be able to take the second of two early abortion pills “in the safe and familiar surroundings of their own home,” the government said.

Currently, women seeking to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks must take two pills — mifepristone and misoprostol — at a clinic, 24 to 48 hours apart.

That means women in England must visit a clinic twice to ingest the pill and then make their way home to complete the termination, the government said in a statement, which “can be difficult to organize and often uncomfortable or traumatic.”