What the hell is going on in the UK? Police are checking periods apps to look for abortions

[Soubriquet]

They have defended their actions and said they are looking for illegal abortions

link

They are also checking women’s houses

Under his eye indeed

So when you read the reasoning into it, investigating a rare but potential criminal offence it’s just a clickbait article and headline.

No, but with a stillbirth they need to establish whether the baby was born alive. If it was, why it died, and the answer may be murder. Unsurprisingly they can't just take mums word that the baby was born dead. The coroner may need to be involved etc.

Hence in any stillbirth where there isn't a medical professional to verify if the child was born alive, this will need to be investigated.

This isn't about women's autonomy, it's about investigating child and neonatal deaths.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/24/uk-woman-accused-using-pills-abortion-covid-lockdown

It’s only the red top news papers and other unreliable sources who have said this

I don’t think I ever tracked my periods even when trying to conceive. It’s been a while for me as I had an early menopause and had my last period 20 years ago before anyone had a smartphone!

This!

Take abortion out of the criminal system

Sigh...

You still don't get it. With a stillbirth, if there is no Dr/paramedic around to verify that the baby was not born since, then irrespective of the laws in abortion, it will need to be investigated because it's an unexplained death. The coroner will be involved and there may be a police investigation in relation to whether the child was murdered/victim of infanticide.

It makes precisely zero difference whether abortion is legal or not, there's things neg to happen with some miscarriages because otherwise some people will literally get away with murder.

It's not just "unattended stillbirths" Soggy. Women who go to hospital are also at risk of having it reported to the police by someone at the hospital or someone roar who wants to cause the woman trouble. And stillbirths often happen very quickly so there will be many that happen at home.

Then the police confiscate your phone and investigate you for 'a potential murder' and you are acting like this is reasonable!

Everyone should listen to the podcast called double jeopardy linked earlier in the thread, it's very informative of what's going on here, and it's not nothing to see here.

Because I don't use a calendar or a diary.

Because my phone is convenient

Because my app shows me where I am in my cycle, it shows me any symptoms I might experience that day.

Because I have a busy life and not having to think about when my period is due and having an app to remind me that it's due in two days or whatever is handy.

No, I've never said it was just unattended births (that are incredibly rare, because if someone doesn't make it to the hospital, there'll usually be a paramedic). It's incredibly rare for a baby to be born suddenly without any warning, so pain, no contractions whatsoever.

Yes, theoretically an investigation could be started because someone is wanting to cause trouble or because of hospital concerns. That happens all the time in other situations. SIDS deaths that are investigated to check it wasn't murder, child safeguarding investigations because a child has had too many bumps in the head. All of these have sensitive personal circumstances around them. But if there's a concern that a crime has been commited then the police should investigate.

Investigation doesn't necessarily mean searching the house or phones either. Those are avenues that can be taken but don't have to be.

Between 1861 when abortion was made illegal and November 2022 with updates to the law in between just three women were prosecuted for procuring an illegal abortion in Great Britain.

This is presumably why. The conviction rate for this is a million times lower than the already abysmal conviction rate for rape. So I'm guessing they've decided the current approach isn't working.

This is some info from BPAS about the amendment (NC1) being proposed to the Crime and Policing Bill currently going through parliament: https://bpas-campaigns.org/time-to-act/the-reform/

I'm confused now. The other article I read pretty much reported it as a gross miscarriage of justice without any ambiguity. This one suggests that the situation is far from clear. The other article didn't mention all the internet searches about whether the pills work late in the pregnancy and what to do with the body etc.

Why store contacts on your phone when you can use a phone book? Why use google when you can look up information in a book? Why use IPlayer when you can record TV?

I’m in my thirties. I have never used a paper calendar or diary. Since I started my periods at 14 I have logged them on an App. How could I log them in a diary or calendar when I don’t own one, or never owned one? I’ve never wrote out a cheque or used a fax machine either.

Don't the police need some sort of warrant to examine your phone?

I didn't click the link but police searching women's phones in the UK for evidence they've had an abortion sounds like bullshit to me.

Yes. I worked in digital forensics years ago (not as an analyst though) and they have to get an order to be able to request phone data from the provider for things like cell site analysis and message/call log retrieval.

To get a diagnosis of PMDD, you have to track your mood & periods for 6 months... Obviously easier on an app than anything else when you're recording a lot of info beyond just perido day or not.

Presumably you don't use a smart phone then. As literally anything except calling could be substituted with pren and paper. Maybe carrier pigeon instead of WhatsApp.

Don't use the clock, I've got a sun dial.

https://gb.readly.com/magazines/cosmopolitan-uk/2025-05-29/68319c6cbe2534470f0977c3?srsltid=AfmBOopTb3TfomJ-ZEKqhx1xlWOuVj9cDS2pYZPDfzLxGXoFVM0n3y7f

That's very distressing. I hope the new bill to decriminalise goes through. I track my periods through my fitness app and like OP have terrible memory and need an external reminder. According to the App I am likely to start bleeding tomorrow but as my cycles over the last year have been variable from 25 to 33 days it might not happen. No chance of me needing an abortion as I don't have heterosexual sex but it's horrifying that data like that could be used as evidence against any woman.

For all those women on here saying 'oh, you have nothing to fear if you go into premature labour' and 'oh, it's only if there's something suspicious, it won't affect you'

It will. It absolutely will.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/abortion-decriminalise-bpas-law-uk-b2750861.html

That is why this law change must go through.

Ok, but there WAS something suspicious here. It wasn't just a premature labour.

When this lady found out she was pregnant she is tried initially to get an abortion but was beyond 24, weeks.

So then she researched buying abortion pills.

Then at 28 weeks (so 0-4 weeks after being refused an abortion, less time then that since she'd rejected the idea of taking the pills illegally), her baby was born suddenly at home, with no medics in attendance at that stage.

Thankfully baby made it, but this really did have red flags.

However whether abortion was legal or not, they'd have likely been police involvement anyway in this case whilst they established whether they're had been any post birth attempts to harm the baby, given the recent history.

For those that think it should be perfectly legal for women to conduct later term abortions on themselves, what happens when the baby survives but suffers terrible injuries or lifelong disabilities?

Do we just shrug that off as the consequences of a legal choice?
What if the baby initially survives but subsequently dies? Perhaps after a long hospital battle? The abortion was induced in a fetus, but reef in the death of a baby?

Where a post 24 week pregnancy ends at home unattended (like if the baby in this case had not been born alive), police and the coroner would need to be involved to establish whether the baby had been born alive. That would happen irrespective of the abortion laws.

With the rise of at home abortions, pills in the post etc, it's never been so easy for a woman to obtain a late term/at term abortion. We aren't even talking about back street abortion here, but completely removing the ban on DIY abortions!

I don't want a woman taking abortion pills to abort a 30 week old fetus, that may suffocate at birth or (if mum changes her mind and calls an ambulance) may be disabled for life by this. I absolutely think this should be illegal.

@Soggybirthdaycamping why, on discovering a premature birth, did someone leap to the conclusion that an investigation was necessary rather than prioritising mother and baby? This is the heart of the matter - women are not trusted with their own bodies. The fact of the matter is that this sort of thing could happen to anyone who goes into premature labour or has a miscarriage. Innocent women are put through the mill, and this has been escalating in recent years. We have all seen what is happening in the US. We know what happens in countries like El Salvador. A line has to be drawn.

Women first. Always, always, always.