A woman jailed for an illegal late-term abortion posted a defiant message hours before she was sentenced for the crime.
Carla Foster, 44, who is a mum of three, lied about how advanced her pregnancy was to get the abortion-inducing drugs from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service under the ‘pills by post’ scheme.
The scheme was introduced during the Covid pandemic. It allows medication to be supplied after a remote consultation for pregnancies of up to 10 weeks.
However, an autopsy confirmed that Foster was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she requested the mediation.
Yesterday (June 12), a judge at Stoke Crown Court sentenced her to 28 months in prison. She will serve 14 months in custody and the remainder on licence after her release.
Woman jailed for illegal late-term abortion
Foster, from the Staffordshire village of Barlaston, fell pregnant in late 2019, the court heard. She had been sleeping with two men and didn’t know which was the father, it was claimed. She carried out internet searches from February 2020 onwards that included “How to lose a baby at six months”. In April she searched for “I need to have an abortion but I’m past 24 weeks”.
Against the backdrop of the first – and most severe – Covid-19 lockdown, she spoke to a nurse practitioner at BPAS on May 6, 2020. Foster led the nurse to believe she was around seven weeks pregnant. She was then sent the abortion-inducing drugs to take.
Her child, a girl she named Lily, was born, not breathing, on May 11, 2020. A post mortem examination recorded her cause of death as stillbirth and maternal use of abortion drugs.
Most abortions in England are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy. They can only be carried out after 24 weeks in very specific circumstances. These include if the mother’s life is at risk or if the child would have a severe disability when born.
However, following the sentencing, there have been calls for a reform to the law.
Judge delivers his verdict
Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Pepperall said Foster was “plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face”. He also accepted she was a “good mother” to her three children. One has special needs. All three will now be without their mum for more than a year while she serves her sentence.
No one has the right to judge you because no one knows what you’ve been through. They may have heard stories, but they didn’t feel what you felt.
Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty. However, 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.
Mr Justice Pepperall said: “This case concerns one woman’s tragic and unlawful decision to obtain a very late abortion. The balance struck by the law between a woman’s reproductive rights and 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.”
Defiant message ahead of sentencing
Posting on Facebook, hours before her sentencing, Foster posted a message urging people not to judge her.
The text post read: “No one has the right to judge you because no one knows what you’ve been through. They may have heard stories, but they didn’t feel what you felt.”
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