‘No one has the right to judge you’: Mother-of-three, 44, posts poignant Facebook message before she is jailed for inducing an abortion outside the legal limit – as campaigners call for changes to ‘out of date’ laws
- Carla Foster lied about how advanced pregnancy was in order to obtain drugs
- She was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she received the medication
A mother-of-three jailed for illegally procuring her own abortion had posted on Facebook hours earlier that ‘no one has the right to judge you because no one knows what you’ve been through’.
Carla Foster, 44, who lived in the Staffordshire village of Barlaston, lied about how advanced her pregnancy was in order to obtain abortion-causing drugs.
She was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she received the medication from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service under the ‘pills by post’ scheme.
The scheme, which was introduced during the Covid pandemic, allows medication to be supplied after a remote consultation for pregnancies of up to ten weeks.
Foster already had three sons – one of whom has special needs – before she became pregnant again in 2019. She had moved back in with her estranged partner when lockdown began, while carrying another man’s baby.
She was jailed for two years and four months at Stoke Crown Court yesterday despite a plea for leniency from medical bodies and charities.
But hours before the sentencing, at about 3am yesterday, Foster posted an image on her Facebook page saying: ‘No one has the right to judge you because no one knows what you’ve been through. They may have heard stories, but they didn’t feel what you felt.’
Most abortions in England are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy. They can only be carried out after 24 weeks in very specific circumstances such as if the mother’s life is at risk or if the child would have a severe disability when born.
Carla Foster lied about how advanced her pregnancy was to obtain abortion-causing drugs
Foster posted this message on Facebook at 3am yesterday, just hours before she was jailed
The court heard that Foster had been having sex with two men and did not know which was the father when she became pregnant.
How mother was prosecuted under 1861 law on ‘administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion’
Carla Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty.
She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, entitled ‘administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion’ – and this was accepted by the prosecution.
The law states as follows:
‘Every woman, being with child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, and whosoever, with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child, shall unlawfully administer to her or cause to be taken by her any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for life’
She carried out internet searches from February 2020 onwards that included ‘How to lose a baby at six months’. In April she searched for ‘I need to have an abortion but I’m past 24 weeks’.
She spoke to a nurse practitioner at BPAS on May 6, 2020 leading the nurse to believe that she was around seven weeks pregnant. Her child, a girl, was born, not breathing, on May 11, 2020.
A post mortem examination recorded cause of death as stillbirth and maternal use of abortion drugs.
Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty.
But she later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Ahead of the sentencing, a letter was sent to the court from leaders of health organisations calling for a non-custodial sentence.
The letter from leaders of medical groups such as the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare, warned that imprisoning Foster could put other women off accessing telemedical abortion services.
The letter also said it could put off late-gestation women from seeking medical care or from being open and honest with medical professionals.
In response, judge Mr Justice Pepperall said in his sentencing remarks it would have been better if ‘the letter had not been written at all.’
He said: ‘The letter also has the capacity to be seen as special pleading by those who favour wider access to abortions and is, in my judgment, just as inappropriate as it would be for a judge to receive a letter from one of the groups campaigning for more restrictive laws and which might seek to argue that it is important that the law is upheld by passing a deterrent sentence.’
But, following the sentencing, Senior Conservative Caroline Nokes said Parliament must consider overhauling the ‘out-of-date’ law used to jail Foster.
Carla Foster, 44, arrives at Stoke Crown Court for her sentencing hearing yesterday
Ms Nokes, who is chairwoman of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, joined women’s rights groups in calling for reform to the 1861 legislation.
What are the rules on abortions in England?
Most abortions in England, Wales and Scotland are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy.
They can only be carried out after 24 weeks in very specific circumstances such as if the mother’s life is at risk or if the child would have a severe disability when born.
Most abortion services ask to perform an ultrasound scan to work out how many weeks pregnant an expectant mother is. The length of pregnancy is calculated from the first day of their last period.
There are two methods of having an abortion in England.
One is a medical abortion, or the ‘abortion pill’, which sees the woman take two medicines, usually 24 to 48 hours apart, to induce an abortion.
The other is the ‘surgical abortion’ which sees a woman have a procedure to remove the pregnancy and normally go home soon afterwards.
She told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight programme yesterday: ‘This is not something that has been debated in any great detail for many years now.
‘And cases like this, although tragic and fortunately very rare, do throw into stark relief that we are reliant on legislation that is very, very out of date.
‘I think that makes a case for Parliament to start looking at this issue in detail.’
This morning, senior MP Dame Diana Johnson urged ministers to ‘step up’ and decriminalise abortions.
The chairwoman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘This is not in the public interest to see a mother with three children now in prison for 28 months.’
Discussing existing abortion laws, the Labour MP added: ‘Society has moved on, healthcare has moved on, and I think Parliament has a role now to look at reforming our abortion laws.
‘There’s no other country in the world as I understand it that would criminalise a woman in this way.
‘The Government should step up and say we should decriminalise, we should reform abortion law, take the criminal law out of this, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have regulation.’
Former chief crown prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal also argued it was not in the public interest to prosecute the mother-of-three.
Citing public feeling towards laws restricting abortions and her mitigating factors, he told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Had I been involved, had I been doing this particular case, I would not have prosecuted it.
‘This whole terrible event took place during the pandemic and people were making some terrible choices during that period that perhaps they regret now. And I think that’s one of the things I would have factored in in relation to this particular case.’
Foster eventually pleaded guilty to a charge under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Centre for Women’s Justice director Harriet Wistrich questioned how the prosecution was in the public interest.
Reaction to sentencing of Carla Foster for inducing late abortion
‘Society has moved on, healthcare has moved on, and I think Parliament has a role now to look at reforming our abortion laws. There’s no other country in the world as I understand it that would criminalise a woman in this way.’
Dame Diana Johnson, Labour MP and Commons Home Affairs Committee chairwoman
‘This is not something that has been debated in any great detail for many years now. And cases like this, although tragic and fortunately very rare, do throw into stark relief that we are reliant on legislation that is very, very out of date.’
Caroline Nokes, Conservative MP and Commons Women and Equalities Committee chairwoman
‘No woman can ever go through this again. In their sentencing remarks, the judge made it that women will only be protected from prosecution if MPs bring forward legal change. There has never been a clearer mandate for parliamentary action, and the need has never been so urgent.’
Clare Murphy, British Pregnancy Advisory Service chief executive
‘This is a tremendously sad story and underscores the desperate need for legal reform in relation to reproductive health’
Chiara Capraro, Amnesty International UK women’s human rights programme director
‘What possible purpose is served in criminalising and imprisoning this woman, when at most she needs better access to healthcare and other support?’
Harriet Wistrich, Centre for Women’s Justice director
‘This whole terrible event took place during the pandemic and people were making some terrible choices during that period that perhaps they regret now’
Nazir Afzal, former chief crown prosecutor for the North West
‘Our laws as they stand balance a woman’s right to access safe and legal abortions with the rights of an unborn child. I’m not aware of any plans to address that approach.’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman
‘The balance struck by the law between a woman’s reproductive rights and the rights of her unborn foetus is an emotive and often controversial issue. That is, however, a matter for Parliament and not for the courts.’
Judge Mr Justice Pepperall
‘What possible purpose is served in criminalising and imprisoning this woman, when at most she needs better access to healthcare and other support?’ she said.
‘She is clearly already traumatised by the experience and now her children will be left without their mother for over a year.
‘When most forms of violence against women and girls go unpunished this sentence confirms our very worst fears about contemporary attitudes to women’s basic human rights and an utterly misdirected criminal justice system.’
Women’s human rights programme director at Amnesty International UK Chiara Capraro said the decision to prosecute was ‘shocking and quite frankly terrifying’.
‘This is a tremendously sad story and underscores the desperate need for legal reform in relation to reproductive health,’ she said.
British Pregnancy Advisory Service chief executive Clare Murphy called for MPs to protect women in desperate circumstances so they are never threatened with prison.
She said: ‘We are shocked and appalled by the decision to sentence a mother-of-three to 28 months in prison for using abortion pills to end her own pregnancy.
‘No woman can ever go through this again. In their sentencing remarks, the judge made it that women will only be protected from prosecution if MPs bring forward legal change. There has never been a clearer mandate for parliamentary action, and the need has never been so urgent.
‘Just this week, a police force contacted BPAS to request the medical records of a woman who is being investigated for allegedly attempting to end their own pregnancy.
‘Over the last three years, there has been an increase in the numbers of women and girls facing the trauma of lengthy police investigations and threatened with up to life imprisonment under our archaic abortion law.
‘On Saturday, BPAS, alongside the Women’s Equality Party, Fawcett Society, and many others will be taking to the streets in London to demand legislative reform.
‘Vulnerable women in the most incredibly difficult of circumstances deserve more from our legal system.
‘In 2020, MPs in Westminster amended the law in Northern Ireland to remove the threat of criminal sanction for any woman who attempted to end their own pregnancy.
‘MPs must extend the same protection so that no more women in these desperate circumstances in the UK are ever threatened with prison again.’
The Crown Prosecution Service said the case was ‘complex and traumatic’, but said it has a duty to ensure laws are ‘properly considered and applied when making difficult charging decisions’.
Foster did not see a doctor about her pregnancy because she was ’embarrassed’ and did not know how far along she was, the court was told.
She spoke to a nurse practitioner at BPAS, an abortion care service, on May 6 2020 and, based on her answers to questions about her pregnancy, it was determined she was only around seven weeks pregnant and she was sent abortion pills in the post.
Days later, on May 11 2020, having taken the pills, a 999 call was made at 6.39pm saying the defendant was in labour.
Her child was born during the course of the phone call, prosecutors told the court.
The baby was not breathing and despite resuscitation attempts by paramedics, who arrived at the scene at about 7pm, she was pronounced dead at hospital around 45 minutes later.
A post-mortem examination determined the child was between 32 and 34 weeks’ gestation when born.
Prosecuting, barrister Robert Price said: ‘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.
‘While the baby was not full term, she was approaching that stage of development. Multiple and prolonged internet searches showed a level of planning.
‘The taking of the drugs was a planned and deliberate act in which her intention could only have been to procure an abortion.’
Defending Foster, Barry White said Covid lockdowns had changed the way healthcare and advice services were operating to minimise face-to-face contact.
He told the court: ‘The restrictions placed on services to advise women may explain why there were so many internet searches for information on behalf of the defendant.
‘We can never really know or imagine the turmoil she would have been experiencing at the time.
‘The defendant may well have made use of services had they been available at the time. This will haunt her forever.’
Mr Justice Pepperall acknowledged it is an emotive case and said it was made more ‘tragic’ because the defendant did not plead guilty earlier, adding that he may have been able to consider suspending the jail sentence if she had.
He said Foster, who was given a 28-month extended sentence, will serve 14 months in custody and the remainder on licence after her release.
He added: ‘This case concerns one woman’s tragic and unlawful decision to obtain a very late abortion.
‘The balance struck by the law between a woman’s reproductive rights and the rights of her unborn foetus is an emotive and often controversial issue. That is, however, a matter for Parliament and not for the courts.’
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman, asked if Rishi Sunak is confident that criminalising abortion in some circumstances remains the right approach, told reporters: ‘Our laws as they stand balance a woman’s right to access safe and legal abortions with the rights of an unborn child. I’m not aware of any plans to address that approach.’
Source: Read Full Article
