Under a law passed in 1861, any woman who takes “poison” with an intent to cause her own fetus’s miscarriage “shall be guilty of felony” and liable “to be kept in penal servitude for life.”
That was the law under which Ms. Foster was sentenced, and hers is not an isolated case.
In his ruling, Judge Pepperall cited a 2013 decision in which a British court sentenced a woman to three and a half years in prison for causing her own miscarriage while about 38 weeks pregnant. And Stella Creasy, a lawmaker in the opposition Labour Party, said on BBC Two’s “Newsnight” current-affairs show on Monday that there had been 67 investigations under the 1861 act in the past decade.
What were the calls for decriminalization?
Caroline Nokes, a lawmaker in the governing Conservative Party who chairs the Women and Equalities Committee in the House of Commons, told the BBC after the court’s ruling that England was “relying on legislation that is very out of date.”
She said the sentencing “makes a case for Parliament to start looking at this issue in detail.”
Louise McCudden, the head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, a Britain-based women’s health organization, said in an interview that even if prosecution was rare, the law must be changed.
“Any case is too many,” she said.
Ms. Creasy, the Labour lawmaker, told BBC Two’s “Newsnight” that “Abortion is a health care issue, not a criminal matter.”
What were the calls for tighter rules?
Groups that campaign against abortion argued that the case illustrated the tragic consequences of the government’s decision to allow abortion pills to be sent by mail. They also said that Parliament should act based on the case, by further restricting the procedure.
“The government should urgently turn back the clock and end this disastrous policy of cheap, convenient, pills-by-post abortions,” Andrea Williams, the chief executive of Christian Concern, an advocacy group, said in a statement.
