The UK is in uproar today after a woman has been convicted of inducing an abortion outside the legal limit using pills at home, with campaigners urging Parliament to reform abortion laws.
On Monday, a woman received a sentence of 28 months, 14 of which will be spent in custody, after she took medication acquired via the ‘pills by post’ scheme introduced during lockdown, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard.
The woman was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she took the medication and went into labour on May 11, 2020, though it has been stated that she believed she was 28 weeks pregnant.
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In the UK, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, and the procedure must be carried out in a clinic after 10 weeks.
She was initially charged with child destruction, which she denied, and later pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. Under the law, which many have described as ‘archaic’ since the conviction was delivered, women ‘who use drugs or instruments’ that are ‘unlawfully administered’ to cause an abortion can be ‘kept in penal servitude for life’.
While abortion was legalised (with stipulations) during the Abortion Act in 1967, the Victorian law from 1861 has not been repealed, which is why some parts of the legislation still apply to this day.
Several opinion leaders, politicians and campaigners have come out and called for urgent reform of abortion laws.
On Tuesday, Caroline Nokes MP told the BBC that the 1861 law used to prosecute the woman, who is a mother-of-three, was ‘out of date’. Nokes, who chairs the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, called for MPs to ‘decide in the 21st Century whether we should be relying on legislation that is centuries old’.
‘This is not something that has been debated in any great detail for many years now,’ she told BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme. ‘And cases like this, although tragic and thankfully very rare, throw into sharp relief that we are relying on legislation that is very out of date. It makes a case for Parliament to start looking at this issue in detail.’
Labour MP Stella Creasy has also told BBC Two's Newsnight programme: ‘I don't understand in whose interests this case was.’
She also tweeted: ‘There is a mechanism government can use to show mercy to woman convicted today for having an abortion - it’s a royal prerogative and was last used in 2020. If you think Abortion is healthcare and not a criminal matter ask your MP to join me urging the lord chancellor to act.’
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has said that it was ‘shocked and appalled’ the ‘archaic law’ had been used to sentence the woman. ‘We are now seeing a mother-of-three prosecuted under laws that do not exist in the same way in any other country,’ Clare Murphy, chief executive of the BPAS, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. She said that 'a growing number of women’ seemed to be coming under police investigation over suspected illegal abortions.
Last year, The Times reported that a 25-year-old woman pleaded not guilty at Oxford Crown Court last year to a single charge of administering poison with intent to procure a miscarriage. She is accused of having 'unlawfully administered to herself a poison or other noxious thing, namely Misoprostol', and faces trial later this year.
In response to Foster's sentencing, the Women’s Equality Party (WEP) tweeted: ‘This sentence is cruel and utterly heartbreaking.’
Mandu Reid, the leader of the WEP, said: 'I am devastated for the woman at the centre of this case, and for her children, who have been forcibly separated from their mum...'
'This conviction serves no one, not her, not her children, not the public interest. All it does is punish a woman for seeking healthcare in the middle of a pandemic and risk deterring women who want or need an abortion from seeking that care in future. No one deserves to be criminalised for seeking healthcare, which is a human right.'
MP Caroline Lucas shared the Guardian’s coverage of the news, tweeting: ‘Truly horrifying verdict - 3 children face being without their mother thanks to law passed in 1861. No woman shd be criminalised for ending her own pregnancy. Time to reform our archaic laws so women aren't locked up for their abortion choices.'
Dame Diana Johnson, chair of the home affairs select committee, has called for the government to decriminalise abortion. ‘Removing the criminal law is a very sensible, reasonable step, but it's not to deregulate abortion care and who can provide it,’ she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The Times journalist Hannah Al-Othman, who has been covering the news in the last 24 hours, shared information about a march taking place in London on Saturday to campaign for reform.
‘I’m told there will be a march taking place on Saturday, from the Royal Courts of Justice to Westminster, with campaigners demanding changes to abortion laws,’ she tweeted. ‘It has been organised after a woman was today jailed for 28 months for taking abortion pills after the legal time limit.’
The march has been organised by the Women’s Equality Party. ‘On Saturday June 17 at 1.00pm WE will be marching with BPAS and the Fawcett Society from the Royal Courts of Justice to Westminster in support and solidarity, and to demand the decriminalisation of abortion,’ a statement on its website reads. You can find out more information about the march here.
A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said that cases like this woman's were ‘exceptionally rare... complex and traumatic’. ‘Our prosecutors have a duty to ensure that laws set by Parliament are properly considered and applied when making difficult charging decisions,’ they added.
In court, the CPS argued that the woman was aware of abortion limits and had provided false information during a remote medical consultation.
Meanwhile, her defence said the limitations of lockdown and the reduced number of face-to-face appointments had affected the defendant’s access to healthcare. ‘This will haunt her forever,’ they noted, noting that the woman needed 'family and support' rather than a jail term.
The Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that the 44-year-old had moved back in with her estranged partner at the start of lockdown while carrying another man's baby.
Judge Mr Justice Edward Pepperall agreed that the woman had been ‘in emotional turmoil’ and had tried to hide the pregnancy, and that a suspended sentence might have been possible if she’d had pleaded guilty earlier.
The court heard that between February and May 2020 she had searched ‘how to hide a pregnancy bump’, ‘how to have an abortion without going to the doctor’ and ‘how to lose a baby at six months’.
BPAS sent the woman the medication to induce an abortion because it was estimated that she was seven weeks pregnant, given the false information she provided the organisation.
In April 2023, a mitigation plea was sent to Mr Pepperall which had been signed by groups including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives. 'We plead to Your Honour to consider leniency in this case … we are fearful that if the case before you receives a custodial sentence it may signal to other women who access tele-medical abortion services, or who experience later gestation deliveries, that they risk imprisonment if they seek medical care,' it said.
Mr Pepperall rejected the women's health organisations’ appeals to pass a non-custodial sentence, noting that it was the court's duty to ‘apply the law as provided by Parliament’.
The Guardian reports that in his sentencing remarks the judge made reference to Sarah Catt, who in 2012 was originally sentenced for eight years after aborting her unborn baby within a week of a due date. Her sentence was reduced to three and a half years on appeal.
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, please contact BPAS on 03457 30 40 30 (or +44 1789 508 211 from outside the UK).
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
