People in the UK have held protests after a woman was jailed for having an abortion at eight months.
44-year-old Carla Foster had been sent abortion pills in May 2020 after she did a remote medical consultation during COVID lockdowns.
She had just moved back in with her estranged partner during lockdown while she was carrying another man’s baby and repeatedly searched up information online about how to terminate her pregnancy.
Prosecutors say Foster, a mother of three, misled the nurse into believing she was about seven weeks pregnant.
This would allow her to use the abortion pills, which are intended for terminating pregnancies under 10 weeks.
Foster took the medication and was later admitted to hospital, where her pregnancy ended in a stillbirth.
A postmortem found that the pregnancy had been about eight months, or about 32 and 34 weeks.
The coroner’s report said the fetus did not take an independent breath. Abortion is legal in England up to 24 weeks of a pregnancy but must be performed in a hospital after 10 weeks.
On Monday June 12, Foster was sentenced to 28 months based on a law dating back to 1861.
She will serve at least 14 months in prison and the rest on release if she meets certain condition.
The judge wrote in his decision that Foster was a good mother to her three children, including one with special needs, and that they would suffer while she was in prison.
The verdict has ignited calls for the UK to reform its laws so that women are not criminalized for seeking healthcare.
Activists say the legal system should do more to help women in desperate situations to access healthcare instead of putting them in prison.