Under legislation introduced during Covid, abortion pills can be sent by post, but only for those who are up to 10 weeks pregnant. Packer was estimated to be 26 weeks along. If found guilty, she could have faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Britain likes to pretend that it is more enlightened in many areas than other countries, particularly when it comes to the issue of reproductive health. When I was editor of Broadly, a feminist platform, I was told that backstreet abortions were a thing of the distant past here.
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Except, except: Take Nikki Packer’s case, or the recent news that police have been handed guidelines on how to search homes for abortion drugs, seize laptops and phones, check private messages to family and friends and even access period and fertility tracker apps in supposedly suspicious cases of stillbirth. That’s right – you could be going through a traumatic miscarriage, only to be investigated by officers for illegally obtaining an abortion. A Tennessee lawmaker would be proud.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which issued the police guidance, told the Observer that unexpected pregnancy loss was “not routinely investigated” – but medical experts and leading abortion providers, including BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), said they hadn’t even been consulted on the advice. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists described this as “shocking”.
Another was hospitalised for complications resulting from a legally-obtained abortion, only to find upon being discharged that police had cordoned off her home and were searching her property.
Our right to a termination is only the result of an effective loophole created in 1967 by the Abortion Act, which allows for pregnancy to be terminated under strict circumstances, including the medical sign-off of two doctors.
But, as Cosmopolitan points out in their new End 1861 campaign, the majority of those who obtain abortions outside of this strict criteria almost always involve mitigating circumstances, such as domestic abuse or violence. These cases should be treated with utmost compassion and sensitivity, not with handcuffs and a night in a jail cell.
In June, MPs will vote on an amendment that would do just that by removing women who end their own pregnancy from the Offences Against the Person Act – a change that is supported by BPAS and over 30 professional bodies, including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Zing Tsjeng is a journalist, non-fiction author, and podcaster
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