For the Crown Prosecution Service, the British public prosecutor, quoted by the BBC, cases like that of Carla Foster are “exceptionally rare…complex and traumatic”. This 44-year-old Briton, mother of three, was sentenced on Monday, June 12, to twenty-eight months in prison, including fourteen months, by the Crown Court of Stoke-on-Trent, after resorting to abortion pills beyond the legal period.
The Abortion Act 1967 provides that a pregnancy may be legally terminated up to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy in the UK. Prosecuted under Section 58 of the Offenses Against the Person Act 1861, which governs offenses against the person, and charged with taking drugs or using instruments to obtain an abortion, Carla Foster was 32 to 34 weeks pregnant , when she contacted the British Pregnancy Advice Services (BPAS) as part of the ‘pills in the post’ scheme, set up during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the court, Mr.me Foster lied to the BPAS about ” current status “ of her pregnancy, the service providing abortion pills after remote consultation for pregnancies of up to ten weeks. The BPAS sent him a tablet of mifepristone and four of misoprostol: the two drugs used together constitute the abortion pill. She took one mifepristone pill on May 9 and the four misoprostol pills at 1 p.m. on May 11, 2020. But three hours later she called the emergency room.
The stillborn baby’s autopsy revealed that the cause of death was the mother’s use of abortive drugs.
“A deliberate act”
In his indictment, prosecutor Robert Price said Carla Foster had “illegally caused the abortion of the child she was carrying by taking abortion drugs which she had obtained by providing false information to a pregnancy service”. “The prosecution believes that taking the medication was a deliberate act. Her intention was to have an abortion. »
During his trial, it was established that Mr.me Foster had had affairs with two men other than her former boyfriend and discovered in late 2019 that she was pregnant, without knowing who the father was. According to the website of Stoke Sentinelthe local daily that followed the case, she wanted to hide her pregnancy and she searched the Internet for ways to end it.
According to the prosecutor, Mr.me Foster continued to research the Internet from his hospital bed, including “Can I get in trouble with the police for taking abortion pills?” and “Could I go to jail for having an abortion at 30 weeks pregnant?” “.
Health professionals including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the president of the Faculty of Public Health and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, signed a letter asking the judge to show clemency. They argued that the imprisonment of Mme Foster would dissuade other women from using their services or being candid with doctors.
In his decision, Judge Edward Pepperall criticized these interventions, recalling that his “duty as a judge is to apply the law as provided by Parliament. I do not accept [l’idée] that imprisonment deters women and girls from legally seeking care within the 24-week limit. »
Calls for law reform
Prior to her sentencing Carla Foster wrote on Facebook: “No one has the right to judge you because no one knows what you have been through. They may have heard stories, but they didn’t feel what you felt in your heart. »
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On TwitterLabor MP Stella Creasy called for a “urgent reform”: “The average prison sentence for a violent offense in England is eighteen months. A woman who had an abortion without following the procedures has just been sentenced to 28 months [de prison] under an Act of 1861.”
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, chair of the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, also spoke to the BBC, calling for reform of the 1861 legislation.
Asked about the case, a spokesman for the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “Our laws as they exist balance a woman’s right to safe and legal abortions with the rights of an unborn child, I am not aware of any plans to change abortion laws . »
Several organisations, including the Women’s Equality Party and the BPAS, have called for a march on June 17 between the Royal Courts of Justice and the Palace of Westminster to demand reform of the abortion law.
In the meantime, MP Stella Creasy has added on Twitter : “There is a mechanism the government can use to show mercy to a convicted woman (…) for having an abortion: this is a royal prerogative last used in 2020. If you think abortion is a health issue and not a criminal matter, ask your MP to join me in urging the lord chancellor [l’équivalent du ministre de la justice] Act. »