Woman jailed for taking abortion pill after UK legal limit will be released from prison

By Eve Brennan, Sana Noor Haq and Niamh Kennedy, CNN

London (CNN) — A British woman jailed under Victorian-era legislation for terminating her pregnancy after the United Kingdom’s legal limit has won her appeal and will be released from prison, in a case that reignited the campaign to decriminalize abortion in the country.

A judge in England’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday reduced the sentence of Carla Foster, a 45-year-old mother-of three, ordering that she should be released immediately from prison and serve a suspended sentence instead, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency.

In June, the Crown Court in Stoke-on-Trent, central England, gave Foster a 28-month prison sentence after she admitted using medication to terminate a pregnancy during a Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

The original sentence required her to serve 14 months of her sentence in prison, sparking outrage from lawmakers and abortion rights campaigners alike.

Foster was sentenced under the Offences Against the Person Act, which dates back to 1861.

Abortion is currently legal in the UK up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and the law stipulates that a person may be able to have a procedure at home if they are less than 10 weeks pregnant, according to the National Health Service.

On Tuesday, Judge Dame Victoria Sharp called Foster’s situation a “very sad case,” making particular reference to the “length of gestation” when the offence was committed.

“It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment, and where no useful purpose is served by detaining Ms. Foster in custody,” Sharp stressed.

The judge pointed towards the “exceptionally strong mitigation” in Foster’s case, ruling that she should be released from prison “immediately,” according to PA.

‘Compassion, not punishment’

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), an abortion care facility that provided the woman with the medication in 2020 believing that she was about seven weeks pregnant, said on Tuesday it is “delighted with the decision.”

“We echo the judges’ statements that this is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment,” Clare Murphy, the chief executive of BPAS, said in a statement.

“The Court of Appeal has recognised that this cruel, antiquated law does not reflect the values of society today. Now is the time to reform abortion law so that no more women are unjustly criminalised for taking desperate actions at a desperate time in their lives.

“We urge Parliament to take action and decriminalise abortion as a matter of urgency so that no more women have to endure the threat of prosecution and imprisonment.”

Barrister Charlotte Proudman, who advocates justice for women facing prosecution for terminating a pregnancy in the UK, reiterated calls on Tuesday to “de-criminalise abortion full stop,” on Twitter.

Proudman told CNN in June that the Offences Against the Person Act is “ancient,” emphasizing that it was “written at a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote” in the UK.

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