Two women in the UK are facing jail time for having an abortion, including one who received the pills she needed from an authorized provider.
An unnamed 25-year-old woman is accused of “unlawfully giving herself a poison or other harmful substance, namely misoprostol” to induce a miscarriage.
She is said to have taken the drug, which is one of two pills routinely prescribed by doctors to help terminate a pregnancy, in January last year.
That crime falls under the Offenses Against the Person Act 1861 and carries a life sentence.
She is said to have taken the drug, which is one of two pills routinely prescribed by doctors to help terminate a pregnancy, in January last year
The woman, mother of a young child, pleaded not guilty to administering poison to cause a miscarriage at Oxford Crown Court. She was told through an interpreter that she would be tried in February next year.
It comes as another woman is due to appear at Staffordshire Magistrates Court charged with child destruction under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929.
The unnamed woman received pills from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) during the coronavirus lockdown, under legislation introduced during the pandemic.
It allowed women up to ten weeks pregnant to receive abortion pills in the mail to take home after a remote consultation.
The at-home provisions became permanent in March after MPs voted to amend the Health and Care Act.
After taking the pills, the woman gave birth to a 28-week-old fetus and was reported to the police.
Her case is to be sent to Stoke Crown Court. If convicted, she also faces a life sentence.
Under the Abortion Act 1967, abortion is legal when it is performed in accordance with regulations, including by registered doctors and by medical practices such as those performed by the NHS.
Senior doctors have said continued law enforcement could discourage women with miscarriages and incomplete abortions from seeking treatment when they need it.
Medical professionals, lawyers and charity workers have signed a letter to Chief Prosecutors Max Hill QC urging him to stop taking women to court for abortion.
The letter calls for all ongoing cases to be dropped and for no future charges to be brought against any woman or girl who terminates a pregnancy or suffers a pregnancy loss.
It comes as similar freedoms are being curtailed in the US, where the Supreme Court ruling giving women the right to seek resignation, Roe v Wade, was recently overturned.
Clare Murphy, chief executive of Bpas, told The Times: “These charges could deter women who have miscarried and incomplete abortions from seeking treatment when they need it.
The woman, mother of a young child, pleaded not guilty to administering poison to cause a miscarriage at Oxford Crown Court
A second woman’s case is due to come to Stoke Crown Court. If convicted, she also faces a life sentence.
“Some migrant women who are not eligible for NHS-funded abortion treatment may feel that accessing abortion pills illegally is their only option. If these women go to a hospital and need help, should the police be called, or should these women be given medical care and support without fear of prosecution?’
The charity has sent a letter to prosecutors who are believed to be urgently looking into the issues raised.
Jonathan Lord, medical director of MSI Reproductive Choices UK, has claimed that some women have been screened after a natural miscarriage or stillbirth because they had previously considered terminating their pregnancy.
He said a patient had been released from the hospital into police custody, where she remained for 36 hours following emergency surgery.
It comes as similar freedoms are being curtailed in the US, which overturned the Supreme Court ruling giving women the right to seek resignation
Charlotte Proudman, one of the lawyers who signed the letter, said she was considering filing a lawsuit against the government under human rights laws.
MPs have voted in favor of changing the law to regulate abortion as a health procedure.
Labor MP Diana Johnson said: “I think the British public does not want to see women and doctors being criminalized under some Victorian law when medicine and public opinion have developed so much.”
