Carla Foster: Mother jailed over lockdown abortion to be released

A mother who was jailed for illegally taking abortion tablets to end her pregnancy during lockdown will be released from prison after the Court of Appeal reduced her sentence.

Carla Foster, 45, admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

A judge told her last month she would serve half her 28-month term in custody and the remainder on licence.

But the Court of Appeal reduced the term to 14 months suspended.

Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert at the London court on Tuesday, called it "a very sad case".

"It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment," Dame Victoria said.

Foster appeared at the hearing via a video link from Foston Hall prison, Derbyshire.

The mother-of-three from Staffordshire was jailed at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 12 June.

The court heard she had moved back in with her ex-partner at the start of lockdown, while pregnant by another man.

She procured pills by post from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) after providing information that led staff to believe she was seven weeks pregnant.

Although abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, after 10 weeks the procedure is carried out in a clinic.

On 11 May 2020, after she took the abortion pills, emergency services received a call to say she had gone into labour.

The baby was born not breathing during the call and pronounced dead about 45 minutes later.

Foster was initially charged with child destruction, which she denied.

She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.

Dame Victoria told the court there was "no useful purpose" served by detaining Foster in custody, and added her case had "exceptionally strong mitigation".

Foster's barrister Barry White said there had been a lack of "vital reports" into his client's mental health and the pandemic had added to her existing anxiety.

The Court of Appeal also heard the prison had not allowed Foster any communication with her children during her 35-day incarceration, one of whom is autistic.

Mr White highlighted Foster had voluntarily revealed her actions to police, adding: "Had she not done that, it is highly unlikely that she would have ever been prosecuted."

Robert Price, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the original sentence was not "manifestly excessive" and the judge had "correctly made allowances for mitigating factors in this unusually sensitive case".

As well as the 14-month suspended prison sentence, Foster will also have to complete up to 50 days of activity.

In response to the verdict, chief executive of the BPAS Clare Murphy said she was "delighted" the mother would be released from prison and called for a change to the law.

"The court of appeal has today recognised that this cruel, antiquated law does not reflect the values of society today," she said.

"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."

Right to Life UK, however, urged the government to reject legislation changes and called for a "full inquiry" into how BPAS had come to dispatch Foster's abortion pills.

"Campaigners, led by BPAS... are using this tragic case to call for the removal of more abortion safeguards and the introduction of abortion up to birth across the United Kingdom," said spokesperson Catherine Robinson.

"At at least 32 weeks or around eight months' gestation, [the baby] was a fully formed human child. If her mother had been given an in-person appointment by BPAS, she would still be alive," she added.

Stella Creasy MP tweeted decriminalisation was needed in abortion cases and called existing legislation "archaic".

"The relief that this woman can go home to be with her children is tempered by the knowledge there are more cases to come where women in England [are] being prosecuted and investigated," the Labour MP said.

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