The average punishment for a violent crime is about 18 months in prison. Yesterday, a 44-year-old woman was sentenced, under a law dating back to 1861, to 28 months for procuring an abortion beyond 24 weeks. Now in jail and separated from her three children, one of whom has additional needs, it is difficult to see how such a prosecution was in the public interest.
Yet this case is not unique. Many other women are being investigated under the same statute. Those who say that what is happening in the US, El Salvador or Poland to women’s rights could never happen here are wrong. To protect the freedom of all UK women to choose what happens to their own bodies, these antiquated laws must be urgently reformed.
