But let me tell you, it’s already happening here. Two women are currently awaiting trial in England for abortion-related offences, both facing charges that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. At least 17 women have been investigated by police over the past eight years for having abortions. In Oxford, a 25-year-old mother of one is facing trial for allegedly taking the drug misoprostol – one of two pills routinely prescribed by doctors to terminate a pregnancy. But her baby was born alive and she then reported to the police. He is charged under the Crimes Against the Person Act, a law passed by Parliament in 1861, before the invention of the light bulb and before women had the right to vote. The law states that a woman must be “kept in penal servitude for life” if she has an abortion. Another woman is facing trial after taking abortion pills she received from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) by post when rules were relaxed during the pandemic to allow this. She was reportedly 28 weeks pregnant at the time and faces charges of “child destruction” (note the visceral language) under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which also carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. She could spend the rest of her life in prison. So often we think that the Abortion Act of 1967 legalized abortion. But he did no such thing. It partially decriminalized abortion in England, Scotland and Wales, as long as strict conditions were met, such as confirmation by two doctors that the pregnancy had not exceeded 28 weeks (later reduced to 24 weeks in 1990) or that the termination was necessary to avoid injury or mental harm. Any abortion outside these criteria is still a criminal offence. We know that it is overwhelmingly vulnerable women who are investigated and prosecuted for abortion. A woman collapsed in the dock when she was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 2015 for taking pills she bought online to induce a miscarriage after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The court heard he had a “history of emotional and psychological problems”. Another woman, a mother of one, ordered pills online to induce an abortion in 2019 after her abusive boyfriend told her not to go to the doctor. She thought she was eight to 10 weeks pregnant, but after a traumatic miscarriage in her bathtub, where she described sitting in an inch of blood, she realized her pregnancy was much further along. He was arrested in his hospital bed and served two years in prison. These are just a few examples of women who have faced trial: there are many other women who face grueling police investigations. In 2021, a 15-year-old girl was investigated for a year after an unexplained stillbirth. Her phone and laptop were confiscated during her GCSE exams, she was self-harming and the inquest was only completed after the coroner concluded the pregnancy was due to natural causes. Another woman was arrested at the hospital last year and held in a jail cell for 36 hours after stillbirth at 24 weeks, and now suffers from PTSD. My question is this: if a woman has had a late-term abortion, or traumatic miscarriage or stillbirth, should she go to jail, or should she be offered medical support during what is clearly a horrible time, both mentally and physically? Women in 2022 are bound by a 160-year-old law made at a time when we weren’t even allowed to set foot in the House of Commons. Urgent reform is needed to protect more women from harm, which is why organizations such as BPAS and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) are calling on the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Max Hill QC, to withdraw all charges against these women. The RCOG this month went further, calling on ministers to finally legalize abortion. There is absolutely no public interest in sending vulnerable women to prison for termination of pregnancy. Instead, these prosecutions will only serve to put off women seeking help from doctors because they might get caught, pushing more women into unsafe and underground options. Meanwhile, under the Abortion Act’s criteria, a woman must prove she would suffer serious permanent harm to her mental health if she did not have an abortion after 24 weeks. Why must women pathologize themselves as crazy, hysterical, unfit, or suffering in order to legitimately access health care? The state currently has a triple lock on women’s bodies. By not legalizing abortion it has the right to impose pregnancy, birth and motherhood on us. Watch out for organ donation rules: it’s illegal to donate people’s organs after they’ve died (no matter how desperately needed by people on waiting lists) without their permission. The law at present, which denies women the right to terminate a pregnancy on their own terms, is to give us less autonomy than a corpse.
Charlotte Proudman is a barrister specializing in violence against women and girls and a fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, please email it to us at [email protected]
title: “Do You Think Abortion Is Legal In Great Britain Ask The Two Women Facing Life In Prison Charlotte Proudman Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-04” author: “Donna Kelly”
But let me tell you, it’s already happening here. Two women are currently awaiting trial in England for abortion-related offences, both facing charges that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. At least 17 women have been investigated by police over the past eight years for having abortions. In Oxford, a 25-year-old mother of one is facing trial for allegedly taking the drug misoprostol – one of two pills routinely prescribed by doctors to terminate a pregnancy. But her baby was born alive and she then reported to the police. He is charged under the Crimes Against the Person Act, a law passed by Parliament in 1861, before the invention of the light bulb and before women had the right to vote. The law states that a woman must be “kept in penal servitude for life” if she has an abortion. Another woman is facing trial after taking abortion pills she received from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) by post when rules were relaxed during the pandemic to allow this. She was reportedly 28 weeks pregnant at the time and faces charges of “child destruction” (note the visceral language) under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which also carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. She could spend the rest of her life in prison. So often we think that the Abortion Act of 1967 legalized abortion. But he did no such thing. It partially decriminalized abortion in England, Scotland and Wales, as long as strict conditions were met, such as confirmation by two doctors that the pregnancy had not exceeded 28 weeks (later reduced to 24 weeks in 1990) or that the termination was necessary to avoid injury or mental harm. Any abortion outside these criteria is still a criminal offence. We know that it is overwhelmingly vulnerable women who are investigated and prosecuted for abortion. A woman collapsed in the dock when she was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 2015 for taking pills she bought online to induce a miscarriage after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The court heard he had a “history of emotional and psychological problems”. Another woman, a mother of one, ordered pills online to induce an abortion in 2019 after her abusive boyfriend told her not to go to the doctor. She thought she was eight to 10 weeks pregnant, but after a traumatic miscarriage in her bathtub, where she described sitting in an inch of blood, she realized her pregnancy was much further along. He was arrested in his hospital bed and served two years in prison. These are just a few examples of women who have faced trial: there are many other women who face grueling police investigations. In 2021, a 15-year-old girl was investigated for a year after an unexplained stillbirth. Her phone and laptop were confiscated during her GCSE exams, she was self-harming and the inquest was only completed after the coroner concluded the pregnancy was due to natural causes. Another woman was arrested at the hospital last year and held in a jail cell for 36 hours after stillbirth at 24 weeks, and now suffers from PTSD. My question is this: if a woman has had a late-term abortion, or traumatic miscarriage or stillbirth, should she go to jail, or should she be offered medical support during what is clearly a horrible time, both mentally and physically? Women in 2022 are bound by a 160-year-old law made at a time when we weren’t even allowed to set foot in the House of Commons. Urgent reform is needed to protect more women from harm, which is why organizations such as BPAS and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) are calling on the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Max Hill QC, to withdraw all charges against these women. The RCOG this month went further, calling on ministers to finally legalize abortion. There is absolutely no public interest in sending vulnerable women to prison for termination of pregnancy. Instead, these prosecutions will only serve to put off women seeking help from doctors because they might get caught, pushing more women into unsafe and underground options. Meanwhile, under the Abortion Act’s criteria, a woman must prove she would suffer serious permanent harm to her mental health if she did not have an abortion after 24 weeks. Why must women pathologize themselves as crazy, hysterical, unfit, or suffering in order to legitimately access health care? The state currently has a triple lock on women’s bodies. By not legalizing abortion it has the right to impose pregnancy, birth and motherhood on us. Watch out for organ donation rules: it’s illegal to donate people’s organs after they’ve died (no matter how desperately needed by people on waiting lists) without their permission. The law at present, which denies women the right to terminate a pregnancy on their own terms, is to give us less autonomy than a corpse.
Charlotte Proudman is a barrister specializing in violence against women and girls and a fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, please email it to us at [email protected]
title: “Do You Think Abortion Is Legal In Great Britain Ask The Two Women Facing Life In Prison Charlotte Proudman Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-02” author: “Katy Kramer”
But let me tell you, it’s already happening here. Two women are currently awaiting trial in England for abortion-related offences, both facing charges that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. At least 17 women have been investigated by police over the past eight years for having abortions. In Oxford, a 25-year-old mother of one is facing trial for allegedly taking the drug misoprostol – one of two pills routinely prescribed by doctors to terminate a pregnancy. But her baby was born alive and she then reported to the police. He is charged under the Crimes Against the Person Act, a law passed by Parliament in 1861, before the invention of the light bulb and before women had the right to vote. The law states that a woman must be “kept in penal servitude for life” if she has an abortion. Another woman is facing trial after taking abortion pills she received from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) by post when rules were relaxed during the pandemic to allow this. She was reportedly 28 weeks pregnant at the time and faces charges of “child destruction” (note the visceral language) under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which also carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. She could spend the rest of her life in prison. So often we think that the Abortion Act of 1967 legalized abortion. But he did no such thing. It partially decriminalized abortion in England, Scotland and Wales, as long as strict conditions were met, such as confirmation by two doctors that the pregnancy had not exceeded 28 weeks (later reduced to 24 weeks in 1990) or that the termination was necessary to avoid injury or mental harm. Any abortion outside these criteria is still a criminal offence. We know that it is overwhelmingly vulnerable women who are investigated and prosecuted for abortion. A woman collapsed in the dock when she was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 2015 for taking pills she bought online to induce a miscarriage after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The court heard he had a “history of emotional and psychological problems”. Another woman, a mother of one, ordered pills online to induce an abortion in 2019 after her abusive boyfriend told her not to go to the doctor. She thought she was eight to 10 weeks pregnant, but after a traumatic miscarriage in her bathtub, where she described sitting in an inch of blood, she realized her pregnancy was much further along. He was arrested in his hospital bed and served two years in prison. These are just a few examples of women who have faced trial: there are many other women who face grueling police investigations. In 2021, a 15-year-old girl was investigated for a year after an unexplained stillbirth. Her phone and laptop were confiscated during her GCSE exams, she was self-harming and the inquest was only completed after the coroner concluded the pregnancy was due to natural causes. Another woman was arrested at the hospital last year and held in a jail cell for 36 hours after stillbirth at 24 weeks, and now suffers from PTSD. My question is this: if a woman has had a late-term abortion, or traumatic miscarriage or stillbirth, should she go to jail, or should she be offered medical support during what is clearly a horrible time, both mentally and physically? Women in 2022 are bound by a 160-year-old law made at a time when we weren’t even allowed to set foot in the House of Commons. Urgent reform is needed to protect more women from harm, which is why organizations such as BPAS and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) are calling on the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Max Hill QC, to withdraw all charges against these women. The RCOG this month went further, calling on ministers to finally legalize abortion. There is absolutely no public interest in sending vulnerable women to prison for termination of pregnancy. Instead, these prosecutions will only serve to put off women seeking help from doctors because they might get caught, pushing more women into unsafe and underground options. Meanwhile, under the Abortion Act’s criteria, a woman must prove she would suffer serious permanent harm to her mental health if she did not have an abortion after 24 weeks. Why must women pathologize themselves as crazy, hysterical, unfit, or suffering in order to legitimately access health care? The state currently has a triple lock on women’s bodies. By not legalizing abortion it has the right to impose pregnancy, birth and motherhood on us. Watch out for organ donation rules: it’s illegal to donate people’s organs after they’ve died (no matter how desperately needed by people on waiting lists) without their permission. The law at present, which denies women the right to terminate a pregnancy on their own terms, is to give us less autonomy than a corpse.
Charlotte Proudman is a barrister specializing in violence against women and girls and a fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, please email it to us at [email protected]
title: “Do You Think Abortion Is Legal In Great Britain Ask The Two Women Facing Life In Prison Charlotte Proudman Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-04” author: “Michael Wilson”
But let me tell you, it’s already happening here. Two women are currently awaiting trial in England for abortion-related offences, both facing charges that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. At least 17 women have been investigated by police over the past eight years for having abortions. In Oxford, a 25-year-old mother of one is facing trial for allegedly taking the drug misoprostol – one of two pills routinely prescribed by doctors to terminate a pregnancy. But her baby was born alive and she then reported to the police. He is charged under the Crimes Against the Person Act, a law passed by Parliament in 1861, before the invention of the light bulb and before women had the right to vote. The law states that a woman must be “kept in penal servitude for life” if she has an abortion. Another woman is facing trial after taking abortion pills she received from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) by post when rules were relaxed during the pandemic to allow this. She was reportedly 28 weeks pregnant at the time and faces charges of “child destruction” (note the visceral language) under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which also carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. She could spend the rest of her life in prison. So often we think that the Abortion Act of 1967 legalized abortion. But he did no such thing. It partially decriminalized abortion in England, Scotland and Wales, as long as strict conditions were met, such as confirmation by two doctors that the pregnancy had not exceeded 28 weeks (later reduced to 24 weeks in 1990) or that the termination was necessary to avoid injury or mental harm. Any abortion outside these criteria is still a criminal offence. We know that it is overwhelmingly vulnerable women who are investigated and prosecuted for abortion. A woman collapsed in the dock when she was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 2015 for taking pills she bought online to induce a miscarriage after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The court heard he had a “history of emotional and psychological problems”. Another woman, a mother of one, ordered pills online to induce an abortion in 2019 after her abusive boyfriend told her not to go to the doctor. She thought she was eight to 10 weeks pregnant, but after a traumatic miscarriage in her bathtub, where she described sitting in an inch of blood, she realized her pregnancy was much further along. He was arrested in his hospital bed and served two years in prison. These are just a few examples of women who have faced trial: there are many other women who face grueling police investigations. In 2021, a 15-year-old girl was investigated for a year after an unexplained stillbirth. Her phone and laptop were confiscated during her GCSE exams, she was self-harming and the inquest was only completed after the coroner concluded the pregnancy was due to natural causes. Another woman was arrested at the hospital last year and held in a jail cell for 36 hours after stillbirth at 24 weeks, and now suffers from PTSD. My question is this: if a woman has had a late-term abortion, or traumatic miscarriage or stillbirth, should she go to jail, or should she be offered medical support during what is clearly a horrible time, both mentally and physically? Women in 2022 are bound by a 160-year-old law made at a time when we weren’t even allowed to set foot in the House of Commons. Urgent reform is needed to protect more women from harm, which is why organizations such as BPAS and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) are calling on the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Max Hill QC, to withdraw all charges against these women. The RCOG this month went further, calling on ministers to finally legalize abortion. There is absolutely no public interest in sending vulnerable women to prison for termination of pregnancy. Instead, these prosecutions will only serve to put off women seeking help from doctors because they might get caught, pushing more women into unsafe and underground options. Meanwhile, under the Abortion Act’s criteria, a woman must prove she would suffer serious permanent harm to her mental health if she did not have an abortion after 24 weeks. Why must women pathologize themselves as crazy, hysterical, unfit, or suffering in order to legitimately access health care? The state currently has a triple lock on women’s bodies. By not legalizing abortion it has the right to impose pregnancy, birth and motherhood on us. Watch out for organ donation rules: it’s illegal to donate people’s organs after they’ve died (no matter how desperately needed by people on waiting lists) without their permission. The law at present, which denies women the right to terminate a pregnancy on their own terms, is to give us less autonomy than a corpse.
Charlotte Proudman is a barrister specializing in violence against women and girls and a fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, please email it to us at [email protected]
