Two British women face life sentences in prison for illegal abortionbut1 women are already serving two-year sentences.
Abortion in the UK is technically illegal under the Abortion Act 1967, but There are some caveats to this.
No criminal penalties apply as long as the abortion is performed within the 23rd week of pregnancy and her 6th day.
Abortion must be approved by her two physicians who determine that the pregnancy is detrimental to the mother's physical or mental health or that the fetus will be born with severe disabilities. Hmm.
The only exception to this rule is where there is evidence of a serious risk to the mother's life or evidence of fatal fetal abnormalities.
Why might a woman be criminally prosecuted for abortion?
, is strictly illegal.
Abortion after the 24th week of pregnancy is considered illegal under the Abortion Act 1967.
There are two main types of abortions in the UK. There are two types of abortion: medical abortion, in which the pregnancy is terminated with medication, and surgical abortion, which involves a medical procedure.
In medical abortion, a woman takes two pills in two doses to control the abortion. Before the pandemic, if a woman was less than 10 weeks pregnant, she would take the first pill under her doctor's supervision and the second pill at her home.
This practice changedto take both pills at home during the pandemic in 2020. It voted to continue with this scheme, later called the "Pills by Mail" scheme, after there were original plans to abolish it.
How many women have been prosecuted for abortion in the UK?
Currently, two women in the UK have life sentences for illegal abortions. A sentence is possible, and one woman is already serving a two-year sentence. claimed innocence. Prosecutors said the unnamed woman used labor inducers when she was 31 weeks pregnant in January 2021.
Doctors at John Radcliffe Hospital allegedly found two of her pills in her body after the baby was born by emergency caesarean section. the baby survived.
According to the Oxford Mail, the women pleaded not guilty to administering poisons intended to induce miscarriages. She is scheduled to go on trial next February.
A second woman, 44, appeared in Staffordshire Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 19 July, less than a week after she had been heard by the first woman.
She was charged with "willful destruction of a viable fetus," an offense under the Infant Life (Protection) Act 1929.
Medical abortion takes two pills
(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A woman was accused of taking abortion pills at 28 weeks' gestation, four weeks after the legal restrictions on abortion in England, Wales and Scotland. Her case has now been sent to criminal court, where she could be sentenced to 160 years in prison.
These incidents followed an anonymous woman called Laura, whose story was shared last weekend inThe Sunday Times.
Laura is serving a two-year prison sentence for aborting her unborn child when she was 30 weeks pregnant. She was in an abusive relationship and thought she was 8 to 10 weeks pregnant when she bought the pill online.
