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13 June 2023

The tragic case of Carla Foster shows why abortion should be decriminalised

Vulnerable women making decisions in harrowing circumstances should not end up in prison.

By Rachel Cunliffe

Everything about the case of Carla Foster, the 44-year-old British woman who this week received a 28-month sentence for procuring drugs to terminate a pregnancy after the legal limit, is tragic.

The facts of the case make difficult reading. The court heard how, in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Foster misled staff at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service during a remote consultation to prescribe abortion pills, suggesting her pregnancy was far less advanced than it actually was. The telemedicine scheme for abortion was introduced as an emergency lockdown measure for pregnancies in the first ten weeks; at the time she took the pills, Foster was 32-34 weeks pregnant. The legal limit for terminations in England is 24 weeks, unless the mother’s health is threatened or there is risk of severe abnormalities.

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