The Thai Senate on Monday voted to amend the criminal code by allowing early term abortions.

The criminal code previously criminalized women who had abortions, either performed by others or by the women themselves, with penalties of up to three years in prison and a 6,000 Baht fine. However, last February the Constitutional Court ruled that the code violated the constitution and gave the parliament 360 days to amend the code to bring it in line with the constitution.

The new amendment, approved by the Thai Senate 166-7 in a late night vote, would allow women to have an abortion up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy but retains penalties of up to six months in prison and up to 10,000 baht fine for abortions after that. Late abortions could be allowed if certified by a doctor as being medically necessary for the life of the mother, if there is a high risk of an abnormal fetus, or if the pregnancy was the result of rape.

Rights groups hailed the vote as a measure of progress, but said Thailand still has far to go. Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch noted that “When governments restrict abortion, women still have abortions–they just have more dangerous ones,” and urged the Thai government to fully decriminalize all abortions.