I am pro-choice. It is essential for women to have access to safe and legal abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. However, despite the indignant response to this tragic case (Scrap this unjust verdict, scrap this law: no woman should go to prison for having an abortion, theguardian.com, 13 June), I am yet to understand how women’s access to legal abortion is threatened by punishment for this person, who lied to procure an illegal late‑term abortion.
Late-term abortion, other than for medical reasons, puts the mother at risk and is a grotesque misuse of the procedure. The time limit for legal abortion is not a minor detail, but incredibly important. Nerve formation, brain function and maturation of the organs progress with time, turning an embryo into a being able to live independently of its mother – a person, in other words. How can we provide every resource to save premature babies born at 26 weeks but allow free access to late-term abortion?
