Thread by @DrEmmaMilne

Sentencing remarks for the awful case today of a woman imprisoned for ending her own pregnancy are out. Here's my take.
For background: I've completed the most comprehensive analysis of these sorts of cases in England & Wales, findings published here: books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Cr…

The judge starts by reminding us of the role of the courts: "The balance struck by the law between a woman's reproductive rights &
the rights of her unborn foetus is an emotive and often controversial issue. That is, however, a matter for Parliament and not for the courts."

The Hon. Mr Justice Pepperall is absolutely right about this. But it is time that Parliament Acts. The law is no longer fit for purpose. Initially enacted to prevent harmful abortions during the Victorian era. Abortion is now safe and there is no need for criminal law regulation

Para 3: "the convicted woman, obtained abortion drugs by a telephone consultation designed only for abortions in the first ten weeks. [She was] in fact 32-34 weeks pregnant and well beyond the point at which [she] could lawfully obtain an abortion."

2 points here:
1) abortion can be legal after 24 weeks. The Abortion Act 1967 allows medical professionals to provide an abortion to preserve the woman's health or life. However, as with all abortions, it is for the doctors to decide, not the woman.

The woman acted without medical care, and so her abortion would have been illegal **regardless** of the gestational stage of her pregnancy. She'd have been breaking the law if she self-aborted at 2-4 weeks.

2) People are often shocked at the gestational stage of pregnancy that women self-abort. The thing I always say: no woman seeks to end a late-term pregnancy if she is not in crisis. The crisis is the driving factor here. No crisis = no self-abortion!

It is not an exaggeration to say that these cases ALWAYS involve a vulnerable women experiencing a crisis pregnancy. Want to know more about this? Read this briefing: durham.ac.uk/departments/ac…

Details outlined further in the judgment make it clear just how desperate the woman was. The judge talks about the woman's "deep emotional attachment" to her unborn child. Another common experience of the poor women who face such situations.

They are not callous witches who want to kill babies. They are women in crisis. Often such women feel they simply *can't* be pregnant. Believing the pregnancy can't exist is very different from not wanting to be pregnant.

Women who self-abort late-term pregnancies do not necessarily want the unborn baby to die. Rather the level of crisis means there is no ability for them to imagine the baby could be born. The steps to end the pregnancy come from this desperate position.

While Parliament does nothing, we will continue to see the imprisonment of vulnerable women who experience crisis pregnancies. It's #TimeForChange! Women in crisis shouldn’t be criminalised #HelpNotHarm

Want to learn more about the criminal law in this area and the experiences of convicted women? Check out the research project website: durham.ac.uk/departments/ac…