Yesterday a woman received a 28 month sentence, with over a year in custody, for using abortion pills to end her pregnancy. Humanists UK has reacted with shock and horror, and calls for immediate action to reform abortion law in England and Wales.
Carla Foster, a mother of three, will spend 14 months in custody and a further 14 months on licence, as she took abortion bills outside the legal limit using pills at home during the pandemic. Ms Foster was initially charged with child destruction which she denied and later pled guilty to an offence under a Victorian law, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
Totally agree that it’s the wrong punishment. It’s not as if she would go around getting further abortions unless they locked her up.
Absolutely - and I’d go further, too. All the studies and research shows that punitive measures do nothing to deter crime, so the question has to be asked - from a logical standpoint, why punish her at all? I agree it is absolutely tragic that a baby suffered due to her actions but the judge himself said that she seemed extremely remorseful and the poor woman has already suffered so much. Who does it benefit to punish her further? Our courts are supposed to be part of our so-called “justice system” - if this act of callous, senseless, needless violence is “justice” then the world really should perish.