A mother-of-three who carried out a homemade abortion while in “emotional turmoil” at the start of the pandemic has been jailed for 28 months.
Carla Foster was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she took the drug Mifepristone in May 2020, and delivered her stillborn daughter Lily later the same day.
Foster had lied that she was just seven weeks pregnant to obtain the drug over the phone from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
Stoke crown court heard Foster, 44, had been forced to move back in with her estranged partner at the start of the first Covid lockdown, while secretly pregnant with another man’s child.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Pepperall accepted Foster was “in emotional turmoil as you sought to hide the pregnancy”, that she has emotionally unstable personality traits, and is now “wracked by guilt” and suffering from nightmares and flashbacks to the traumatic birth.
But he insisted he was simply enforcing the law as he handed down a 28-month prison sentence, despite accepting it would impact on Foster’s three children including one who has special needs.
The judge also aimed fierce criticism at a collection of eminent medical professionals who had written to him, pleading for Foster to be spared a prison term.
The letter was signed by the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, the President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, the President of the Faculty of Public Health, the Chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Abortion Taskforce, the Clinical Lead and a Clinical Representative for the Abortion Care Guideline developed by the National Institute for Health Care Excellence, and the Co-Chair of the British Society of Adoption and Care Providers.
“The letter urges a non-custodial sentence and indicates that its authors are concerned that your imprisonment might deter other women from accessing telemedical abortion services and other late-gestation women from seeking medical care or from being open and honest with medical professionals”, said the judge.
“I consider that it would have been better if the letter had not been written at all.
“While it provides me with some useful information about the delivery of telemedicine services, the letter also has the capacity to be seen as special pleading by those who favour wider access to abortions and is, in my judgment, just as inappropriate as it would be for a judge to receive a letter from one of the groups campaigning for more restrictive laws and which might seek to argue that it is important that the law is upheld by passing a deterrent sentence.”
He said the medical professionals should instead lobby Parliament for a change in the law around abortions outside the 24-week limit, adding: “I do not accept that imprisonment in this case is likely to deter women and girls from lawfully seeking abortion care within the 24-week limit.
“Rather, it might be said that it would reinforce the limit of that law.”
The court heard that when the pandemic struck in March 2020, Health Secretary Matt Hancock approved the principle of abortions taking place in the home, removing the previous necessity for an in-person appointment at a clinic.
Foster had conducted internet searches on inducing a miscarriage in February 2020, and her online research proved she knew she was beyond the legal abortion limit.
Mifepristone was posted to her after she told lies over the phone about the stage of pregnancy she was in. She took it on May 11, 2020, and received emergency treatment later on when her daughter was stillborn.
The judge concluded Foster had “deliberately lied” to get hold of the drug. But he also said: “This offence was committed against the backdrop of the first and most intense phase of lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Forced to stay at home, you moved back in with your long-term but estranged partner while carrying another man’s child.
“You were, I accept, in emotional turmoil as you sought to hide the pregnancy.”
He added: “I accept that you feel very deep and genuine remorse for your actions. You are wracked by guilt and have suffered depression.
“I also accept that you had a very deep emotional attachment to your unborn child and that you are plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face.
“I also take into account the fact that you are a good mother to three children who would suffer from your imprisonment.”
Foster pleaded guilty to administering poison with intent to procure a miscarriage. She must serve up to 14 months of the 28 month prison sentence before being released on licence.
