Guest Post: "If my amendment is passed, Nicola Packer will go down in history as the last woman in England and Wales to be prosecuted for an abortion"

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

73% of Mumsnet users want abortion to be decriminalised which is why it was included in the GE2024 Mumsnet Manifesto - one of twelve policy asks for the new government, based on the experiences and opinions that millions of women have shared on site.

I agree.

Like many of you I’ve been horrified by the increasing number of women who’ve been arrested by police for suspected illegal abortion.

In the last five years, more than 100 women have been investigated under the ‘Offences Against the Person Act’ 1861. Eight of these women have appeared in court. One has been jailed. Among those arrested have been women who’ve suffered natural miscarriages and stillbirths, and others who have gone into unexplained premature labour.

It’s just wrong. It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. It’s a waste of the judiciary’s time.

As the Mumsnet Manifesto said, it’s also not in the public interest to prosecute. We know that no woman ends her pregnancy out of malice – only out of desperation.

It was meeting Nicola Packer at her trial for alleged illegal abortion at Isleworth Crown Court in southwest London that strengthened my resolve to push for a change in the law. My colleague Tracy Gilbert MP and I spoke to her days before she was unanimously cleared by a jury.

Seeing Nicola in the dock, afraid and humiliated, my heart went out to her.

Nicola has been hugely traumatised by her prosecution – having maintained throughout her trial that she was unaware she was any more than 10 weeks’ pregnant. She has also spent the last four-and-a-half years waiting for her case to come to court, living in constant fear that she could go to jail.

To me it was obvious Nicola was not the suspect, but the victim. The victim of a Victorian-era law that criminalises women who end their own pregnancies.

That’s why, last month in Parliament, I tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill. A move that has the backing of more than 100 MPs and 50 organisations including Mumsnet, the British Medical Association and five medical Royal Colleges.

My amendment targets the draconian ‘Offences Against the Person Act’ of 1861. This law means abortion is still a criminal offence in England and Wales except under specific circumstances. If you try to end your own pregnancy at any gestation outside the law the maximum sentence is life in prison – the most severe penalty for an illegal abortion in the world.

In 2019 my colleagues in Westminster repealed this archaic law for Northern Ireland. My amendment will simply bring legislation up to date in England and Wales – and in line with 50 other places worldwide including Ireland, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand.

My amendment will not, however, remove any important safeguards. The Abortion Act of 1967 will be unchanged. This means you can legally access an abortion provided you meet certain criteria: you are under 24 weeks’ pregnant, you meet one of seven medical reasons, and have your abortion signed off by two doctors. My amendment will not change any law regarding the provision of abortion services within a healthcare setting or the provision of telemedicine.

Parliament is expected to vote on the amendment in early summer. If it gets passed, all cases currently going through the criminal justice system will end. And Nicola Packer will go down in history as the last woman in England and Wales to be prosecuted for an abortion.

If you agree that abortion must be decriminalised, support my amendment by contacting your MP using this link: https://www.bpas.org/our-cause/campaigns/abortion-law-reform/

Thank you!

SC does seem confused, because I found this from Durham
https://www.durham.ac.uk/media/durham-university/research-/research-centres/centre-for-gender-and-law/vulnerable-women/Foetal-Protection-Laws.pdf

My impression is that they also think that the legislation that led to Constance Martin’s conviction should be repealed whereas I think SC is implying that they just think the 1861 act is superfluous.

Is the goal that no mother should be criminally prosecuted for harming or killing a new born baby?

SC also suggested that there had been prosecutions in NI, even though abortion is decriminalised there, but I don’t know how to find more information on that.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/apni/1945/15/section/25

from this, the offence of child destruction remains in NI

Tonia's amendment passed, awful news.

Labour apparently cheered. They certainly love death over there.

You can check how your MP voted here: votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2058#ayes

Tonia's amendment passed, awful news.
Labour apparently cheered. They certainly love death over there.

This ‘loving death’ in reference to this situation is unbelievably crass and offensive to women. It shows a worrying disregard for women’s health and human dignity, but you do you.

In the meantime I am relieved to see the compassion in Parliament shown towards women who have found themselves in this terrible situation. I didn’t dare to expect the House of Commons would actually vote in this way, but today they have. Thank you to those MPs and thank you Tonia.

So you’re not concerned that vulnerable women might take an abortion pill and give birth to a 30+ week baby without medical supervision?
You’re not concerned about the fact that a full term healthy baby no longer has any right to life?

It’s an appalling bill.

I do have compassion for babies, I have 3 of my own. But I do not want to live in a society that prioritises an unborn baby over the life and autonomy of its mother. Who is not just a host but an actual living person; I am very pro choice after difficult pregnancies, I had severe complications that could have been fatal and pregnancy is not without risk for the woman who is pregnant.

I can assume you argue as vehemently for the born children in foster care? You donate regularly to your local food bank to ensure poor kids have food to eat? Perhaps you volunteer to help reduce childhood illiteracy in your local area? Pro lifers always want to restrict abortion and never increase access to contraception or ensure no child suffers once it’s born.

This is abortion up until the moment of birth. This is death. I stand by what I said.

Im sorry to hear about your difficult pregnancies.
Im not arguing against late term ( over 24 weeks) abortion if the mother’s life is at risk . Provision for those serious and exceptional cases is already there in the law.
This bill puts women at risk ( as well as offering no protection to healthy late stage babies)

re you last sentence “Pro lifers always want to restrict abortion and never increase access to contraception or ensure no child suffers once it’s born.”
I’m really not sure why you have made those assumptions about me.

It seems to be abortion up until birth will now be allowed if self administered. How can this be healthcare. It isn't.

I believe in the rights of an unborn child, I know many disagree and our views are personal. Where an unborn child is viable it is particularly important in my view that they are protected and for that reason I am concerned about this.

It’s a very stupid bill that could end in tragedy for women and for babies.

Let’s just clarify what this legal change actually does. It brings England and Wales in line with Northern Ireland’s existing law.

It stops vulnerable women being dragged through years-long investigation, charged with criminal offences and getting custodial sentences for ending their own pregnancy, which is likely to devastate their lives and their children’s lives and their work life and their wider family. Just like is already the case in Northern Ireland.

This bringing into line will hopefully encourage and support professional concern and HCP support for women who are in these dire situations, and women who are in situations of miscarriage and stillbirth who could get dragged into this. Rather than HCPs feeling that they should call the police on women as potential criminals, while women are still in need of medical care.

Once again I am very grateful for this amendment to the law.

You’re right. Saves the nhs money though doesn’t it ….

I’m not clear on this.

Stella Creasey implied that legislation remained that meant that a woman could still be prosecuted, and referenced the case of Constance Martin.

As far as I understand the offence of child destruction still exists in NI law, so I don’t understand how the legislation is now the same. (Or , if this change to the law is U.K. wide, how this is a ‘bringing into line’?)

It stops vulnerable women being dragged through years-long investigation, charged with criminal offences and getting custodial sentences for ending their own pregnancy,

I understand this argument, but if Stella Creasey supports this argument, why was she supporting the prosecution of Constance Martin? Why is there a difference between a woman who has given birth and a woman who hasn’t?

It hasn’t been properly thought through.

What do you think decriminalising abortion will do? Motivate women to leave ending their pregnancies till 34 weeks & then just DIY it? We don’t need to criminalise abortion to make killing your newborn baby a crime, a baby at that gestation would very likely be born alive and then if the mother killed her baby she’s committed murder and that’s the crime!

Why is killing it an hour before birth not a crime but an hour later it is a crime?

In law a person isn’t a person until it’s born. That’s not my opinion that’s the law.

Women aren’t waiting till the 3rd trimester to get an abortion just for the fun of it, any abortion done at that gestation is likely due to a fatal diagnosis.

This woman did: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/eight-years-in-jail-for-woman-who-aborted-almostfullterm-baby-8144448.html

Thats heartbreaking to read

It does happen. As in the case of the above post. It is right the woman should be prosecuted.

Why has there been men charged with child destruction for attacking a pregnant women and killing the baby?

“Wilson of Longfield Estate, Bermondsey, and his 17-year-old accomplice were both convicted of child destruction and causing grievous bodily harm.”

Yes. Poor baby.

That is an awful story to read. I am not out here campaigning for all women to abort their 32/34/36 weekers in an abortion free for all. Being pro choice is exactly that - wanting the freedom to choose for myself and for others.

That story is awful, it’s not easy to read and I’m sad for all involved. I can also find you hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of women whose abortion WAS healthcare who obtained it legally through an approved provider at an early gestation as the majority of abortions are.