Last month, Carla Foster, who admitted to having an abortion with pills at 32-34 weeks, was sentenced to 28 months in prison (half in prison and the remainder on licence). Today, the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence to 14 months suspended.
The court heard that Foster had not been permitted any communication with her three children, one of whom is autistic, during her 35-day incarceration.
Dame Victoria Sharp, who presided over the appeal on 18 July 2023, called it “a very sad case,” saying, “It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment.”
The abortion rights movement in the UK held a national demonstration against the decision last week and against the continuing criminalisation of abortion, and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service posted this tweet:
“The Court of Appeal has today recognised that this cruel, antiquated law does not reflect the values of society today. 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.”
SOURCE: Glamour Magazine UK, by Lucy Morgan, 1 July 2023 + PHOTO ; BPAS tweet