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Reproductive rights groups are calling for changes to the law after a Brit was sentenced to jail for using medicines she received in the mail to terminate a pregnancy outside legal limits.
Carla Foster, a 44-year-old mother of three, was sentenced to 28 months in prison. The judge ordered her to be jailed for 14 months, with the remainder to be served on probation.
Ahead of Monday’s sentencing, abortion rights advocates and some medical experts had expressed concern over the recent surge in criminal investigations into suspected late-term abortions and warned that a harsh sentence could deter vulnerable patients from seeking medical help. Some anti-abortion advocates have since called for an end to abortion Using abortion pills at home.
Foster received the abortion drugs under a program introduced by the government during the pandemic that allowed women to administer the drugs at home without in-person consultations.
The program has been approved for pregnancies up to 10 weeks. However, a UK court found that Foster had given the telemedicine provider of the UK pregnancy advice service “false” information that she was seven weeks pregnant.
Her internet search history on the day she administered the first of two abortion drugs suggested she believed she was 28 weeks pregnant, the judge said at a sentencing hearing on Monday.
Two days later, on May 11, 2020, she took a second drug and gave birth to a stillborn baby in the evening. A post-mortem found Foster was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.
Foster pleaded guilty under an 1861 law that carries a life sentence, which abortion advocates call “the harshest sentence in the world.”
In his sentencing statement, Judge Edward Pepperall described the case as a “tragic case” and noted that Foster was “riddled with guilt.” At the time of the termination, Foster had been forced to move back in with her estranged partner during the coronavirus lockdown in the UK and was trying to hide that she was pregnant with another man’s child, Pepperall said.
While recognizing their “emotional turmoil,” Pepperall said it was his duty to apply the laws passed by the country’s parliament. He rejected a letter signed by several health groups, including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Midwives, and sent to the court calling for a lighter sentence.
“If the medical profession thinks it is wrong for judges to jail women who perform late abortions outside the 24-week period, then they should lobby Parliament to change this law, not judges who do has the duty to apply the law,” Pepperall said.
“I do not accept that detention in this case could prevent women and girls from lawfully seeking abortion treatment within the 24-week period. Rather, one could say that it would reinforce the limits of this law,” the judge added.
The defense had argued that Foster had been prevented from receiving regular medical care during the UK’s month-long coronavirus lockdown.
Comparison of abortion laws in the United States with those in other countries
Abortions are legal in the UK up to the 24th week – and after that are usually only carried out if the mother’s life is at risk or the child would be born with a serious disability, and only under medical supervision in a hospital or a Clinic.
Some anti-abortion groups argue that Britain’s abortion rules are too lax. They point out that many European countries limit non-medical abortions to the first trimester and call for an end to the use of abortion pills at home.
In the United States, the Supreme Court in April upheld access to the widely used abortion pill, mifepristone, despite ongoing litigation. It is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration up to 10 weeks gestation.
The UK Pregnancy Advisory Service, which provides abortion services and campaigns for women’s reproductive rights, said there was a growing number of women facing criminal investigations under abortion laws it described as “cruel and outdated”. She is organizing a protest march in London on Saturday to demand changes to the law.
“We are witnessing a mother of three children, one of whom has special needs, being jailed under an 18th-century law that is simply outdated for today’s country,” said Stella Creasy, an opposition Labor MP. called on Sky News, calling for “urgent” legislative reforms. She said current laws deny women “physical autonomy.”
“Over the past three years, there has been an increase in the number of women and girls who face the trauma of lengthy police investigations and who face life sentences under our outdated abortion law,” Clare Murphy, executive director of BPAS, said in a statement Monday. “Vulnerable women in the most incredibly difficult circumstances deserve more from our justice system.”
But Catherine Robinson, spokeswoman for Right To Life UK, said in a statement: “Rather than taking on the responsibility of shipping abortion pills 22 weeks past the legal limit for home abortions and endangering the health of the mother and her unborn child. “…BPAS is now cynically using this woman’s tragic experience of using her abortion service to lobby the government for extreme abortion legislation across the UK.”