UK – Calls to change ‘archaic’ abortion law as fifth woman faces court

Hannah Al-Othman and Megan Agnew
Sunday September 24 2023

A woman who has appeared in court accused of having an illegal abortion is the fifth reported to have been prosecuted this year.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of procuring “poison” — the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — with intent to cause her own miscarriage. The offence, under section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, is alleged to have been committed in November 2020, during the second coronavirus lockdown.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/calls-to-change-archaic-abortion-law-as-fifth-woman-faces-court-r86x6rjj0

24.09.2023

Offences Against the Person Act 1861

prosecuting women for abortion

self-managed abortion

Nebraska Mom Gets 2 Years in Prison After Buying Abortion Pills for Her Teen Daughter

“Here's the audacity: Self-managed abortion is not even a crime in fucking Nebraska,” an advocate told Jezebel. The case is a harbinger of more criminalization.

By Susan Rinkunas
Sep 22, 2023

On Friday, a Nebraska judge sentenced Jessica Burgess to two years in prison after she bought abortion pills for her teen daughter and helped bury the fetal remains in early 2022, according to reporters from Norfolk Daily News and Courthouse News. The sentencing went forward without a court-ordered psychological evaluation that the judge canceled for lack of funding last week. Burgess had faced up to five years in prison after she accepted a plea deal. With good behavior, she could be released in a year.

Burgess pled guilty in July to three charges (tampering with human remains, false reporting, and abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation) in exchange for prosecutors dropping two others (concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician). States have criminalized people for their pregnancy outcomes for decades—even, as in this case, while Roe v. Wade stood—but advocates worry these types of charges, against people seeking abortion and those who help them, will only become more frequent as millions of people live under state abortion bans.

Continued: https://jezebel.com/nebraska-abortion-case-mom-sentenced-1850864511

Woman in Teesside accused of carrying out own abortion to appear before judge

Bethany Cox, 22, is fourth to be prosecuted on such charges in eight months after only three trials in 160 years, say campaigners

Mark Brown North of England correspondent
Sun 13 Aug 2023

A 22-year-old woman accused of procuring a poison to abort her child shortly after the first Covid lockdown is due to appear before a judge this week.

Bethany Cox is the fourth woman to be prosecuted in the last eight months for allegedly carrying out her own abortion, with only three trials in the 160 years before that, according to campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/13/woman-teesside-accused-abortion-poison-judge-court

13.08.2023

News

Bethany Cox

Offences Against the Person Act 1861

prosecuting women for abortion

These States Are Using Fetal Personhood to Put Women Behind Bars

Hundreds of women who used drugs while pregnant have faced criminal charges — even when they deliver healthy babies.

By CARY ASPINWALL, The Marshall Project
July 25, 2023

When Quitney Armstead learned she was pregnant while locked up in a rural Alabama jail, she made a promise — to God and herself — to stay clean.

She had struggled with addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder for nearly a decade, since serving in the Iraq War. But when she found out she was pregnant with her third child, in October 2018, she resolved: “I want to be a mama to my kids again.”

Continued: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/07/25/pregnant-women-prosecutions-alabama-oklahoma

With thanks to the newsletter from International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion…

Care not criminalisation: reform of British abortion law is long overdue

BMJ, J Med Ethics, August 2023, Vol 49 No 8
Sally Sheldon, Jonathan Lord

Megan is a young teenage patient who suffered a stillbirth at 28 weeks, leading to a year long police investigation dropped only after postmortem tests found that her pregnancy was lost due to natural causes. The stress of the investigation and her isolation from friends and support network following the seizure of her mobile and laptop compounded the trauma of the stillbirth, leaving her requiring emergency psychiatric care.

Aisha is a vulnerable patient who suffered a premature delivery, having experienced similar problems in earlier pregnancies. Things happened so quickly that Aisha delivered on her own at home, only then seeking medical care. She told hospital staff that earlier in her pregnancy she had considered an abortion. As a result, she found herself interviewed under police caution and was required to surrender her phone and tablet, limiting access to friend and family support just when most needed. Aisha was denied unsupervised access to

her baby in the intensive care unit, needing to hand over expressed breast milk to a receptionist.

Continued: https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/49/8/523.full.pdf

Polish Opposition Calls for New Protests After Abortion Scandal

Jul 20, 2023
Natalia Ojewska, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s main opposition party called for fresh protests ahead of fall elections after police searched a woman who said she was suffering from anxiety after taking an abortion pill.

The issue of reproductive rights is starting to resonate with the public ahead of the close-fought parliamentary ballot slated for October after the ruling Law & Justice party tightened abortion laws that are already the most restrictive in Europe.

Continued: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/polish-opposition-calls-for-new-protests-after-abortion-scandal-1.1948404

UK – Woman jailed for illegally obtaining tablets to end her pregnancy set to be released

The 45-year-old U.K. mother of three was handed a 28-month sentence after she admitted to obtaining abortion pills to induce a miscarriage when she was 32 to 34 weeks pregnant

The Associated Press, Sylvia Hui
Jul 18, 2023

A woman who was jailed for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her advanced pregnancy will be released from prison after Britain’s Court of Appeal reduced her sentence Tuesday.

Carla Foster, a 45-year-old mother of three, was handed a 28-month sentence last month after she admitted to obtaining abortion pills to induce a miscarriage when she was 32 to 34 weeks pregnant in 2020.

Continued: https://calgaryherald.com/news/a-uk-woman-jailed-for-obtaining-tablets-to-end-her-pregnancy-is-to-be-released-after-appeal

18.07.2023

News

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Carla Foster

Clare Murphy

Judge Victoria Sharp

prosecuting women for abortion

UK – Woman, 22, charged with procuring poison to abort her child

Bethany Cox appears at Teesside magistrates court charged with procuring her own miscarriage shortly after first Covid lockdown

Helen Pidd, North of England editor
Mon 17 Jul 2023

A 22-year-old woman has appeared in court accused of procuring a poison to abort her child shortly after the first Covid lockdown.

Bethany Cox, of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-on-Tees, appeared before Teesside magistrates court on Monday charged with child destruction and procuring her own miscarriage “by poison/use of instrument”.

She is charged under section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which makes it an offence for a woman to unlawfully procure her own abortion.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/17/woman-22-charged-with-procuring-poison-to-abort-her-child

17.07.2023

News

Bethany Cox

Offences Against the Person Act 1861

procuring a miscarriage

prosecuting women for abortion

self-managed abortion

5 reasons why abortion must be decriminalised in Britain

July 13, 2023
Ren Aldridge and Janey Starling

Last month, Carla Foster, a mum of three, was sentenced to prison for self-administering an abortion. Her case has brought Great Britain’s arcane abortion laws into public view – along with calls from MPs, health experts and women’s charities to decriminalise abortion.

Decriminalising abortion simply means treating it as the healthcare procedure it is and never as a criminal offence. Here are five reasons why that needs to happen…

Continued: https://www.kerrang.com/5-reasons-why-abortion-must-be-decriminalised-in-britain

13.07.2023

Commentary

1861 Offences against the Person Act

abortion law reform

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Carla Foster

decriminalization of abortion

prosecuting women for abortion

public support for abortion

Royal College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians

Royal College of Midwives

Nebraska mom pleads guilty to giving daughter pills for an abortion and helping bury the fetus

July 7, 2023
By The Associated Press

MADISON, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty Friday to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an illegal abortion last year and helping to burn and bury the fetus.

Under a plea agreement, Jessica Burgess, 42, of Norfolk, admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains. Charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician were dismissed.

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/nebraska-mom-pleads-guilty-to-giving-daughter-pills-for-an-abortion-and-helping-bury-the-fetus/

07.07.2023