Imagine you are the mother of a 15-year-old girl who has fallen pregnant as a result of an abusive relationship. Your daughter’s partner has threatened to ‘kick the baby out of her and stab it if it was born.’ Your young daughter does not want to continue the pregnancy, and the abuse is ongoing.
Abortion is effectively banned in your country, and you feel you cannot take your daughter abroad for treatment. The only way you can see to help your daughter end her pregnancy is by purchasing safe, World Health Organisation-approved medication online – otherwise she may be forced to continue the pregnancy, aged just 15, and have a child with an abusive partner. What would you do?
I firmly believe that in these most desperate of circumstances, the vast majority of people would choose to buy the medication their daughter needs. In 2013, a mother in Northern Ireland did just that, and today, she is in court challenging the decision to prosecute her for doing so. If her appeal is not successful, she could face up to ten years imprisonment.
Other details of the case seem almost as cruel as the prosecution itself.
After the daughter had used the medication, her mother sought support from her GP due to concerns about the abusive relationship, and the abortion was disclosed. This led, it is claimed, to a police investigation, and the daughter’s confidential medical records were seized without her consent. The mother was then interviewed, herself heavily pregnant and without legal representation present, and was eventually charged with ‘procuring and supplying poison with the intent to cause a miscarriage’ by the NI Prosecution Service.
At bpas, we believe no woman should face criminal sanction for ending a pregnancy, and we are intervening in the case to strongly object to this prosecution. But this is not just a matter of principal, nor does this case just have ramifications for this family.
Hundreds of women in Northern Ireland use this medication, illegally, every year. If this mother is prosecuted after seeking medical care, and after confidential medical notes were seized by police, this could deter other women from seeking support if they needed to after using these pills. While abortion medication is safe women must feel they can access confidential follow-up care without fearing risk of criminal sanction.
Medical professionals could also suffer. Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act (NI) 1967 created the crime of withholding information if a person knows or believes an offence has been committed. Today’s case could force clinicians, fearful of being forced to report their patients to the police or personally risk criminal sanction, to adopt a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach when dealing with a woman who may have used abortion pills. How can a clinician possibly provide the best possible care if they cannot ask important questions or are worried about hearing important facts relating to the condition of their patient?
This case also has significance outside of Northern Ireland.
The law under which this mother is being prosecuted, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, remains in force across the UK. While the 1967 Abortion Act provides a legal defence for women who have an abortion that meets the terms of the Act, including having received authorisation from two separate doctors, this did not repeal the 1861 Act, and any woman, from Belfast to Brighton, who ends a pregnancy using abortion medication online faces up to life imprisonment. We know that women in Great Britain are buying pills online – the MHRA seized 10,000 pills on their way to addresses in England, Wales, and Scotland over the last three years. We fear that if this prosecution continues, it’s only a matter of time before we see another vulnerable and desperate woman on trial.
We cannot predict the outcome of today’s judicial review. But even if it is unsuccessful, we can prevent other women facing a similar ordeal. MPs in Westminster has the power to repeal the UK-wide legislation that criminalises abortion right now. We know that MPs, including Diana Johnson and Stella Creasy, are currently planning parliamentary moves to do so.
The government continues to say that reform must wait until the Northern Ireland Assembly returns. But a mother is facing a criminal trial for providing the medical care that her daughter needed, medical care our government continues to deny to UK citizens. The message from today’s case is that the women of Northern Ireland cannot wait any longer.