Sending women to prison over abortions is not a ‘just outcome’, judges rule after mother, 45, was jailed for 28 months for having one outside the legal limit

Sending a woman to prison for abortion-related offences is not a ‘just outcome’, judges have ruled.

Carla Foster, 45, was jailed for 28 months after admitting an abortion outside the legal limit.

The mother-of-three’s sentence was subsequently reduced to 14 months and suspended at the Court of Appeal.

Explaining the decision, Dame Victoria Sharp, Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert said sending a woman to prison for abortion-related offences was ‘unlikely’ to be ‘just’.

In a 17-page ruling, Dame Victoria said: ‘We consider that in cases of this nature, there will often be substantial personal mitigation to balance against the seriousness of the charge; and that an immediate custodial sentence in such cases is unlikely to provide a just outcome.

‘This was precisely the case here.’

Carla Foster (pictured), 45, was jailed for 28 months after admitting an abortion outside the legal limit

The Court of Appeal in London heard Foster had spent 35 days in prison and was denied contact with her three children, one of whom is autistic. Pictured: Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of an emotional Carla Foster

The judges said the sentencing judge – Mr Justice Pepperall – had wrongly calculated the sentence before factoring in Foster’s mitigation and that it was too high.

Dame Victoria said that while Foster had not been suffering from a serious mental illness at the time of the offence, ‘there was evidence of an emotionally unstable personality and there is no doubt that she suffered emotional turmoil throughout’.

The Court of Appeal in London heard Foster had spent 35 days in prison and was denied contact with her three children, one of whom is autistic. 

Dame Victoria said: ‘By the time of the hearing before us, it was obvious that custody had had a severely detrimental effect on Ms Foster and on her family.’

Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty, before admitting an alternative charge of administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion. 

Mother-of-three Carla Foster pictured leaving her home 

At her sentencing, the court heard she was sent the drugs by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) after she called them during lockdown in 2020 and lied about how far along in her pregnancy she was.

The BPAS welcomed the Appeal Court’s ruling and called for legal reform to ensure ‘no more women are ever threatened with jail’.

Chief executive Clare Murphy said: ‘As an abortion provider, we know that jailing women for abortion is never a just outcome – we are pleased to see that the Court of Appeal agrees.

‘However, every woman who ends up with a suspended sentence or other punishment is a woman who has spent years under investigation by the police, years of being unable to move on from a decision they made at an incredibly difficult time, and years of wasted public money on something which is never in the public interest.’

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