On Thursday, a 22-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she illegally administered drugs in order to procure an abortion. The first charges was: “On 6 July 2020 at Stockton, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by a wilful act, namely administering drugs to procure abortion, contrary to section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, caused the child to die before it had an existence independent of its mother.”
The second charge was: “Between 2 July 2020 and 7 July 2020 at Stockton being a woman with child, unlawfully administered to yourself a poison or other noxious thing, namely misoprostol, with intent to procure your own miscarriage.”
Without commenting on the specifics of the case in any way, this is the fourth woman to be prosecuted in recent months on similar charges. Previously only three other women had been convicted of such offences which were introduced more than 160 years ago.
Pro-abortion campaigners have speculated that this is due to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) taking an aggressive approach to such offences, but the answer could lie elsewhere.
England has one of the most liberal abortion regimes in Europe, where unborn children can be killed up to 24 weeks’ gestation, or up to birth under some circumstances, including if the child has a disability. The regime became even more liberal during lockdown.
Crucially however – and what is much more likely to have caused the increase in women being prosecuted for inducing miscarriages – is that the Tory government introduced emergency legislation during the Covid pandemic and lockdown to facilitate the dangerous “pills by post” at home abortion regime.
This critical change received very little parliamentary scrutiny yet allowed for women to take pills at home up to ten weeks’ gestation after a remote consultation with a doctor. Previously the consultation had to be in person.
Shamefully, this emergency change to the law was later made permanent. In fact, the laws relating to the hunting of foxes received more media attention and legislative scrutiny than a major change to the abortion law. It seems infant life, especially pre-born infant life, is viewed as cheap and disposable by pro-abortion activities and lawmakers and by some in the media.
This enormous change to the law on abortion meant that powerful drugs that can induce a miscarriage can be secured by a mere remote consultation with a doctor. This is now a permanent DIY home abortion regime, without any in-person examination by the medical profession. It has led to a wild west abortion regime.
It is true that the limit is 10 weeks’ gestation to secure these powerful drugs, but it seems some women, because they don’t need to see a doctor in person, have been able to obtain and then administer these drugs to induce miscarriage well past the legal limit in England of 24 weeks pregnancy.
This is what happened in the case of Carla Foster who lied to a doctor by remote consultation to secure and administer a drug that induced her miscarriage of her unborn child at 32 to 34 weeks into her pregnancy.
After Ms Foster was convicted on trial, she received a sentence of 28 months in prison. This was cut to 14 months and suspended as according to the Court of Appeal, “it is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment, and where no useful purpose is served by detaining Ms Foster in custody”. This may have been the case, especially as Ms Foster had a disabled child at home that she cared for, but what was notable was the complete lack of compassion shown to her unborn child, baby Lily.
Baby Lily not only had her right to life denied to her by being poisoned in her mother’s womb, but she suffered the further indignity of having her humanity ignored by the mainstream media, many of whom refused to even name her.
In fact, there is now a wholesale attack on pre-born infant life. These infants are attacked physically by the abortion industry and dehumanised by medics and politicians who demand they be stripped of their rights completely by having abortion removed from the sphere of the criminal law.
Under this Brave New World animals would have more protection in the criminal law than the unborn child. Pro-abortion medics continue this assault and campaign of dehumanisation by referring to such late term abortions as being carried on a ‘foetus’ when this is not the usual term that would be used, even in the medical sphere.
The reality is the Tory government made a huge change to the law on abortion when it received very little scrutiny and compounded this attack on the human rights of the most vulnerable by making it permanent. The very last thing we need now is an abortion regime that allows late term abortions of healthy children carried by healthy mothers. The extreme regime being pushed for by pro-abortion campaigners has very little support even from a liberal public.
The state and society should always seek to protect the most vulnerable, those who depend on others to speak for them. There are fewer groups among our human family that are more vulnerable than the pre-born child. This disgraceful attack on their humanity and dignity must stop.
(Getty images)
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