Woman jailed for having an illegal home abortion is to be released following an appeal
A woman jailed for illegally obtaining abortion pills to end her pregnancy during lockdown will be released from prison after winning an appeal to reduce her sentence.
Carla Foster, 45, was given a 28-month sentence after she admitted to illegally taking at-home medication during the pandemic to end her pregnancy, which was between 32 and 34 weeks along (the legal cut-off point for a telemedicine home abortion is 10 weeks and the limit for a surgical abortion is up to 23 weeks).
When the mother-of-three was sentenced last month, a judge said she would serve half her term in custody and the remainder on licence (where you have to abide by specific rules laid out by the court) after her release.
But, at the Court of Appeal in London on Tuesday 18 July, judges Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert, reduced Foster's prison sentence, it is now widely reported.
Foster's sentence has now been slashed from more than two years to 14 months and it has also been ruled that it should be suspended. She herself appeared via video link from Foston Hall Prison in Derbyshire for the hearing.
The news follows campaigners, politicians, protestors and abortion groups – including the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and MSI International – arguing against her sentence and calling for abortion to be decriminalised.
"This is a very sad case, not least because of the length of the gestation when the offence was committed," Dame Victoria said at the ruling. "It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment, and where no useful purpose is served by detaining Ms Foster in custody."
Foster was originally jailed at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 12 June.
In light of the new ruling, Abortion Support Network (ASN) has welcomed the decision while also highlighting the many other similar cases that could benefit from the same thing. "We're pleased to hear she [Foster] will be released, as she shouldn't have been charged or imprisoned to begin with. However, this isn't the only case of this kind. There are other women facing similar charges right now," a spokesperson told Cosmopolitan UK.
"It's never in the public interest to charge people for terminating their pregnancies, and we hope the spotlight on these cases ultimately leads to the decriminalisation of abortion in Britain - following in the footsteps of NI who decriminalised abortion in 2019."
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