We've joined British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and more than 60 clinicians, organisations, unions and legal professionals in a letter calling on the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to issue urgent guidance so that women who end their own pregnancies won’t face prosecution.

Though abortion is widely available, it remains illegal for women living in Great Britain to terminate a pregnancy outside of the parameters set out in the 1967 Abortion Act and subsequent amendments. As a result, women can find themselves being investigated and even charged with offences if they end their pregnancies outside of these rules.

Many of those women are investigated under archaic legislation, typically the Offences against the Person Act (1861), or the Infant Life (Preservation) Act, which dates back to 1929. Both carry maximum sentences of life in prison.

There are currently two women who are facing prosecution in England, and in the last eight years at least 17 women have been investigated by police for ending their own pregnancies. We agree with BPAS that this is not in the public interest.

Women in these situations are in a highly vulnerable position, very often experiencing coercive control, poor mental health or previous pregnancy-related trauma. Others have found themselves facing trial when they have experienced pregnancy loss after changing their minds about proceeding with an abortion earlier on in their pregnancy. They need support, not criminal investigation.

It’s time that our legal system’s approach to women’s reproductive rights caught up with the 21st century.

Ceri Smith is our Interim Head of Policy and Public Affairs.

14 July 2022

Dear Sir,

We are writing to ask that, as Director of Public Prosecutions, you issue urgent guidance to stop the prosecution of women who end their own pregnancies with immediate effect.

The need for urgent action

We are aware that at the current time, there are two women facing prosecution in England - one under s58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and one under s1 of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 – for ending their own pregnancies.

Both of these crimes carry a maximum life sentence, and both of these women are listed for plea hearings in the next week.

It is our strong belief that in the 21st century, in the shadow of the overturning of Roe v Wade, it is never in the public interest to prosecute women in these circumstances.

The law

While abortion in England and Wales is accessible, it remains a crime at any gestation under a law passed a generation before women even had the vote.

Under the Abortion Act 1967, abortions in England and Wales must be certified by two registered medical practitioners, they must take place at a hospital or premises approved by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (or at a woman’s home prior to 10 weeks’ gestation), and women must meet one of the grounds under which abortion is deemed permissible.

Despite the broad accessibility of care, there are a very small number of women who end a pregnancy outside of these parameters. They are often vulnerable women, in desperate situations, many with a complicated obstetric history or a history of mental health problems. However, due to the approach of the Crown Prosecution Service, rather than being provided with support in this moment, some of these women face a terrifying journey of criminalisation.

The women

Over the past 8 years, at least 17 women have been investigated by police for ending their own pregnancies, though the actual number is likely to be higher. One of the women currently awaiting a hearing self-administered the abortifacient misoprostol in 2021 in an effort to end her own pregnancy. The other, in the first weeks of the pandemic, sought a legal abortion and subsequently passed a pregnancy at a later than expected gestation before being subjected to a more than two-year investigation by the police.

Elsewhere, there are reports of a woman arrested in hospital in 2021 and kept in a police cell for 36 hours after a stillbirth at 24 weeks, in a case in which we understand the CPS has recently reopened the investigation. In another case a 15-year-old girl was investigated by police after a stillbirth at 28 weeks, accused of illegal abortion, her phone and laptop confiscated during her GCSE exams, and driven to self-harm by the year-long investigation – which concluded only when the coroner found that the pregnancy had ended as a result of natural causes.

In 2019, a woman was prosecuted for attempted child destruction after being pressured by the man who got her pregnant to take abortion pills after the 24-week time limit which he had obtained from a friend, claiming that he had cancer and turning up at her house telling her ‘we need to do this’. This was a case in which the CPS proceeded to trial despite the child being safely delivered, and in which the woman was only saved when the judge dismissed the charges mid-trial, saying that she had been in a controlling relationship.

The CPS

Whilst the number of women investigated and prosecuted for ending a pregnancy is small, we believe that the CPS is investing an undue amount of resource in criminalising some of the most vulnerable people in society. In 2021, 89% of legal abortions were performed under 10 weeks, the percentage performed at 20 weeks was just 1%, those ending pregnancies at gestations beyond 24 weeks represent a tiny minority of women who are doing so in the most difficult circumstances. The tiny number of these who are ending pregnancies outside of clinical settings are doing so out of sheer desperation. The approach of police and prosecutors in the handling of these cases paints a disturbing picture of a service that is looking to “catch out” women, lacks understanding of – and sensitivity to – the situations of these women, and fails to respond proportionately.

For many women the decision to end a pregnancy is a simple and easy one taken in the first few weeks of pregnancy, for some, the decision of whether or not to continue a pregnancy is a hard one complicated by social factors, personal health struggles and difficult interpersonal relationships. One in three pregnancies will end in miscarriage and it is common to miscarry a pregnancy whilst weighing up the decision of whether to continue a pregnancy. The risk of criminalisation in this instance - as demonstrated in the examples included in this letter - is incredibly worrying.

We believe that, in 2022, it is never in the public interest to charge women who end their own pregnancy, and that no woman should face investigation or prosecution for ending a pregnancy or experiencing unexpected or unexplained pregnancy loss.

We ask that you issue urgent guidance to the Crown Prosecution Service with a clear signal to cease all current proceedings and to not bring any future charges against women or girls who end a pregnancy or experience pregnancy loss.

Yours,

Dr Edward Morris, President, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Gill Walton, Chief Executive, Royal College of Midwives

Dr Tracey Masters, Abortion Care Lead, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

Martha Spurrier, Director, Liberty

Lydia Parker, Women's Human Rights Programme Director, Amnesty International UK

Naima Sakande, Women's Justice Advocate, APPEAL

Anthony Metzer QC, Barrister, Goldsmith Chambers

Jude Bunting QC, Counsel, Doughty Street Chambers

Mark Gatley QC, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Natasha Rattu, Executive Director, Karma Nirvana

Amy Gibbs, Chief Executive, Birthrights

Amelia Handy, Policy Lead, Rape Crisis England & Wales

Justine Roberts, CEO and founder, Mumsnet

Jemima Olchawski, Chief Executive, The Fawcett Society

Selma Taha, Executive Director, Southall Black Sisters

Declan Owens on behalf of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Co-Chair, The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

Frances O'Grady, General Secretary, TUC

Jonathan Lord and Tracey Masters, Co-Chairs, British Society of Abortion Care Providers

Clare Murphy, Chief Executive, British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS)

Richard Bentley, Managing Director, MSI Reproductive Choices UK

Aaron Flaherty, CEO, NUPAS

Helen Marshall, Chief Executive, Brook

Dr Hannah S. Barham-Brown, MBBS, BA Hons, BSC Hons, FRSA, GP Registrar and Deputy Leader WEP, Women’s Equality Party

Janey Starling and Seyi Falodun-Liburd, Codirectors, Level Up

Dr Charlotte Proudman, Barrister, Goldsmith Chambers

Clíodhna Kelleher, Barrister

Mary-Rachel McCabe, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers

Clare Duffy, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers

Donnchadh Greene, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers

Bill Bowring, Professor of Law, Barrister, Birkbeck College; Field Court Chambers

Rebecca Chapman, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Helen Curtis, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Elena Papamichael, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Victoria Meads, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Danielle Manson, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Jodie Blackstock, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Naomi Wiseman, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Michael Goold, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

Carl Buckley, Barrister, Guernica 37 Chambers

Poppy Henderson, Pupil Barrister, Guernica 37 Chambers

Tim James-Matthews, Barrister, Matrix Chambers

Paul Heron, Solicitor, Public Interest Law Centre

Katherine Erskine, Legal Advisor (Solicitor), BPAS

Tana (Christiane) Adelmann, Solicitor, Carson Kaye Ltd

Trishna Kerai, Paralegal, Carson Kaye Solicitors

Keshina Bouri, Solicitor, Carson Kaye Solicitors

Patrick Lawrence, Solicitor

Nicola Louise Bailey, CNS

Meredoc McMinn, Barrister

Josephine Macintosh, Associate

Mara Clarke, Founder, Abortion Support Network

Dr Pam Lowe, Senior Lecturer, Aston University

Jayne Kavanagh, Co-Chair, Doctors for Choice UK

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive, Humanists UK

Ros Bragg, Director, Maternity Action

Polly Jackman, Co-ordinator, Sister Supporter

Ian Green, Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust

Stephen Evans, Chief Executive, National Secular Society

Florence Schechter, Director, Vagina Museum

Marge Berer, Coordinator, International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion

Tilly Fahey, Sexual and Reproductive Health Nurse, Homerton Healthcare

Nick Begley, Sexual Health Adviser / Nurse, Homerton Healthcare Foundation trust

Jacqueline Vennard, Service Coordinator, Homerton NHS

Rebecca Kennedy Flynn, Specialist Nurse, Homerton Sexual Health

Esther Davis, Senior Staff Nurse, Homerton Sexual Health Services- NHS

Dani Anderson, Fundraising and Comms Manager, Abortion Support Network

Angela Costetsos, Outreach Development Practitioner, Open Doors