Jailing a mother of three - WTF

She deserved to be jailed. What she did is illegal (and in my view morally wrong regardless)

100% this.

I would hope a man would be prosecuted also, wouldnt you?

The details of how its done might not be the same. The intent and outcome is the same. The destruction of the child.

In hindsight I shouldnt have used an example where someone had a breakdown as I cant see that she was mentally ill at the time of the crime.

She broke the law knowingly. The details of the case are on another thread in AIBU. It's grim.

Shw didn't kill a baby. She aborted a foetus. Words matter - just like we know what a woman is.

@DemiColon I disagree because of the unique circumstance of pregnancy. The unborn baby is wholly within another human being who has full human rights.

I think you're also arguing for the removal of the law about child destruction? Is that right?

Absolutely disgusting. I support abortion on demand up until birth anyway. Time that women were trusted to make their own decisions about their own bodies. No one is going to take a decision to abort a 34 week gestation foetus easily

From a legal standpoint there is an equivalence, in that if the life of the baby doesn't count at 34 weeks, it will make no difference who kills it.

You can't have it both ways.

I agree.

You could make that argument about mothers who are guilty of infanticide as well. And usually there are significant mental health issues, but that doesn't mean the law shouldn't take it seriously.

She killed her baby!

What about her poor poor dead baby? She lied through the whole thing. Her baby was 32-34 weeks, so completely viable. A line has to be drawn somewhere.
I agree

I agree. 32 weeks fgs.

Oh no what about the menz 😱

Come on. You know why that's completely different.

This. I feel for her children and for the baby that she knowingly killed when he could have easily survived.

I am not feeling much sympathy for her tbh.

Especially since the madness is the law itself, not the woman’s decision.

I think most people would agree with having limits to abortion when it's just the mother's choice.

If you allow it all the way, it's no different morally to infanticide, and most people don't want to take the step of endorsing that.

I'm not suggesting she had a mental health condition or that she was temporarily impaired or whatever. What I mean is that she was and is clearly deeply distressed about the entire thing from the start till now. Unless you think she chose to do what she did because she was happy and content with her life and just didn't want to be inconvenienced by another child??

I'm not saying that women can't be bad or commit crimes because they simply want to. In this case there were various barriers to her accessing appropriate help, ones to do with covid, ones to do with her state of mind and her home situation and so on. For me, none of that should mean a criminal prosecution, it should mean appropriate help for this woman and changes to how women in difficult situations can access health care in a timely manner.

WTF!

This is a senseless waste of money. I hope she is home very soon.

Societys interest? Please explain?

Not everyone who does something awful is in mental health crises. She would have under gone psychiatric evaluation and it was decided she was fit to stand trial, although she pleaded guilty before it got to trial

It is absolutely appalling and I completely agree with Stella Creasey's comments.

I don’t think the fact she is a mother should really come into it.

I don’t think there should be one rule for childless women and another more lenient rule for mothers,

I don’t think she should spend the 14months in prison. (Her sentence is 28 months with half in custody). It shouldn’t be a criminal offence.

I don’t agree there she had a “mental health crisis” as there’s no evidence of that other than after she did the termination and has been full of regret, remorse and guilt over what she did ever since. Let’s not follow the stereotypes that women must be “mad” if they’ve broken a law. Especially since the madness is the law itself, not the woman’s decision.

What if it was a man who had a breakdown at the thought of another child, didnt want it and hit the mother so the child died in utero.

So it may not be murder in law, but the reason we have a law against it, is presumably because it's considered similar to taking human life from a moral standpoint. (Ignoring where there is a medical justification which changes things.)

My heart goes out to this woman and her three kids, one of whom has special needs according to the BBC report. She was clearly taking desperate measures and now is going to prison and will have a criminal record.

please read the Stella Creasy and BPAS quotes regarding law reform in the article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-65882169

Also to everyone who is confident about the Tories ‘knowing what a woman is’- well, yes.
The disgusting sentencing based on historical laws imprisoning this woman who was/is in an extremely vulnerable situation over lockdown and then the statement by Sunak’s spokesperson that existing laws strike a balance (balance…. are you kidding me?) means the government will not even look at modernising the law. So that really bitterly confirms that yes, the Tories really do know what a woman is.