A 22-year-old woman has appeared in court accused of procuring a poison to abort her child shortly after the first Covid lockdown.
Bethany Cox, of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-on-Tees, appeared before Teesside magistrates court on Monday charged with child destruction and procuring her own miscarriage “by poison/use of instrument”.
She is charged under section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which makes it an offence for a woman to unlawfully procure her own abortion.
Dressed in a black suit jacket, Cox spoke in court to confirm her address and date of birth. She did not enter any pleas.
She is charged with child destruction on 6 July 2020, a few days after most of the restrictions from the first national lockdown were lifted in England.
The charge reads: “On 06/07/2020 at Stockton, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by a wilful act, namely administering drugs to procure abortion, contrary to section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, caused the child to die before it had an existence independent of its mother.”
The second charge reads: “Between 02/07/2020 and 07/07/2020 at Stockton, being a woman with child, unlawfully administered to yourself a poison or other noxious thing, with intent to procure your own miscarriage.”
Cox was granted unconditional bail and told to appear at Teesside crown court on 14 August.
Last month there was outcry when a woman was jailed for 28 months for procuring drugs to induce an abortion after the legal limit. The mother of three received the medication under the “pills by post” scheme, which was introduced during the Covid pandemic for unwanted pregnancies up to 10 weeks, after a remote consultation.
Prosecutors said she knowingly misled the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) by saying she was below the 10-week cut-off, when she believed she was actually about 28 weeks pregnant.
