Judge’s reduction of sentence for abortion shows how law must change, say campaigners

Harriet Harman, the Labour MP, said it was not in the public interest for women to be prosecuted for their own terminations. Photograph: Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament

Prosecutors have been urged to heed a judge’s call for “compassion, not punishment” after the court of appeal halved a woman’s sentence for terminating her pregnancy beyond the legal time limit.

Carla Foster, 45, was sentenced to more than two years in prison after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between seven and eight months pregnant.