A woman jailed for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy during lockdown will be released from prison after the Court of Appeal reduced her sentence.
Carla Foster, 45, was handed a 28-month extended sentence after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.
Foster had lied that she was just seven weeks pregnant, to obtain the drug Mifepristone over the phone from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
She took the drug in May 2020, and delivered her stillborn daughter Lily later the same day.
Sentencing her last month, Mr Justice Pepperall said Foster would serve half her term in custody and the remainder on licence after release.
But at the Court of Appeal in London on Tuesday, three judges reduced her prison sentence.
Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert, said Foster’s sentence would be reduced to 14 months and that it should be suspended.
“This is a very sad case,” Dame Victoria said.
“It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment, and where no useful purpose is served by detaining Ms Foster in custody.”
The Court of Appeal decision was welcomed by women’s right campaigners, who described the law used to prosecute Foster as “cruel” and “antiquated”.
Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: “We...are delighted with the decision to release Carla Foster from prison.
“Now is the time to reform abortion law so that no more women are unjustly criminalised for taking desperate actions at a desperate time in their lives.
“Two women accused of illegally ending their own pregnancies are currently awaiting trial.
“We urge Parliament to take action and decriminalise abortion as a matter of urgency so that no more women have to endure the threat of prosecution and imprisonment.”
A spokesperson for campaign group Level Up added: “This case must bring renewed calls to fight the criminalisation of abortion - and of women and mothers more broadly.”
Labour MP Stella Creasy also called for reform, writing on Twitter: “The relief that this woman can go home to be with her children is tempered by the knowledge there are more cases to come where women in England being prosecuted and investigated for having abortions under this archaic legislation. That’s why we need decrim now.”
During her trial last month, Stoke crown court heard how Foster 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.
The relief that this woman can go home to be with her children is tempered by the knowledge there are more cases to come where women in England being prosecuted and investigated for having abortions under this archaic legislation. That’s why we need decrim now. #nowForEng https://t.co/HL5VE1fPeK
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) July 18, 2023
Foster had conducted internet searches on inducing a miscarriage in February 2020, and her online research for “how to lose a baby at six months” proved she knew she was beyond the legal abortion limit.
Abortions are only legal before 24 weeks, and are carried out in clinics after 10 weeks of pregnancy. They can be carried out after 24 weeks in very limited circumstances, such as if the mother’s life is in danger or there are problems with the baby’s development. Under the Abortion Act 1967, abortions must be approved by two doctors in order to be legal.
Mifepristone was posted to Foster 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.
Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty.
She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.
The sentencing 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.”
Following her sentencing, women’s human rights programme director at Amnesty International UK Chiara Capraro described the decision to prosecute over a law from 1861 as “shocking and quite frankly terrifying”.
