British woman sentenced to 14 months in prison for abortion during Covid lockdown

A British woman on Monday (June 12) was sentenced to 14 months in prison for lying about her pregnancy to secure abortion-causing drugs during the pandemic lockdown. The 44-year-old woman pleaded guilty in March under the Offences Against the Person Act, and will serve half of her 28-month sentence in custody and the remaining under licence. However, she originally pleaded not guilty to a charge of an offence of child destruction.

The abortion limit set in England, Scotland, and Wales is 23 weeks and six days, AFP reported.

According to the pregnancy advisory service, it sent the woman the drugs in May 2020, believing her to be seven weeks pregnant. However, the court later said that it was informed that she had lied and was in fact between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

The prosecutors said her internet search history between February and May 2020 included "how to lose a baby at six months", "I need to have an abortion but I’m past 24 weeks" and "how to have an abortion without going to the doctor."

Prosecutor Robert Price told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court in central England, "She lied to BPAS about how pregnant she was, so they sent the tablets to her. She said she had not seen a doctor about her pregnancy because she was embarrassed."

He added that while the baby was not full term, she was approaching the stage of development, and multiple-prolonged internet searches show the level of "planning."

After the sentence was announced, BPAS's chief executive said that they were shocked and appalled by the sentence and said that 19th-century laws were used to prosecute her.

She added that there has never been a clearer mandate for parliamentary action, and the need has never been so urgent. She also mentioned that over the last three years, there has been a significantincrease in the number of females facing the trauma of lengthy police investigations and treatment with up to life imprisonment under the abortion law.

MPs and Campaigners disappointed with the sentence

Campaigners and UK MPs were outraged after the woman was sentenced to over two years in prison, Guardian reported.

A mitigation plea sent to the judge in April 2023 which was signed by groups including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

It read, "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."

The leader of the Women's Equality party, Manu Reid 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."

(With inputs from agencies)

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