The impact on her and her family will be felt long after her story fades from the headlines (Picture: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Yesterday we saw the consequences of the criminalisation of abortion in England play out with absolutely heartbreaking consequences.
A woman – who I will not name out of respect for her – was convicted of having an abortion outside the time limits in the Abortion Act and she was sentenced to over two years in prison.
The law used to convict her – the Offences Against the Person Act – was originally enacted in the Victorian era, before women even had the right to vote.
When the news broke yesterday, I felt completely devastated for her and for her three children who have had their mum taken away from them. The impact on her and her family will be felt long after her story fades from the headlines.
She is not the only woman I feel devastated for. I feel devastated for all the women – an increasing number – who are under criminal investigation right now following an abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth.
I also feel devastated for all the women who will be put off or afraid to choose to end their unwanted pregnancies in the aftermath of this case.
When I first became the Leader of the Women’s Equality Party in 2019, I also became the first leader of a British political party to speak publicly about my own abortion.
Many women still don’t talk about theirs openly because of the enduring stigma and judgement, which exists in part because abortion remains in criminal law.
I am looking forward to the day when women in the UK are no longer politicised by archaic laws that restrict our bodily autonomy (Picture: Mandu Reid)
When I had my abortion, I was 33. I wasn’t in an established relationship at the time and despite lots of conversations and scribbled sums on the back of an envelope, we couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
Even so, it was far from an easy decision to make. It is a choice I felt lucky to have available to me.
I still do — there are millions of women around the globe who are denied that choice, who lose their lives because they don’t have it, or are criminalised as a result.
In this latest case, the judge in his remarks said that he ‘did not accept’ that the imprisonment of this woman would be likely to deter women and girls from seeking abortions within time limits. I’m afraid I couldn’t disagree more.
This woman’s online searches were scrutinised by the police investigation and used against her in court. It’s chilling to think of the impact this could have on women who risk being criminalised for so much as considering an abortion during their pregnancy, particularly if they go on to have a miscarriage or stillbirth.
To put that into perspective, around one in eight pregnancies ends in a miscarriage. If even one woman is put off from seeking vital healthcare in these circumstances, then women have been catastrophically failed by politicians and the justice system alike.
Because the only thing the criminalisation or abortions does is to make them less safe. There is nothing at all about this conviction that serves the public interest – this woman is of no risk to the public, she is not likely to go on to commit an offence, and it certainly isn’t good for her children.
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The only thing that could have made a difference to the tragedy of her case – or that of the 15-year-old girl who was investigated by police following a stillbirth, or the woman who was taken straight from hospital to a police station for 36 hours following a stillbirth under suspicion of having an illegal abortion – is if abortion was decriminalised and instead regulated as the healthcare procedure it is.
Every time the Women’s Equality Party speaks up for reproductive rights, people tell me it’s different here than in the US or Poland – as if women in the UK are somehow cosmically immune to the rollback of reproductive rights.
As though what happened this week is somehow a surprise when abortion is still in criminal law in England, Scotland, and Wales.
Campaigners have been sounding the alarm about the risks to women and the price we will continue to pay until our hopelessly outdated laws are changed.
Of course the worst can happen here. It did happen here. And it will happen here again unless we change the law to remove abortion from our criminal code once and for all.
When I had my abortion, it politicised me.
At the time, there were simply no viable options available to me because of how expensive childcare is in the UK, and no sign of any political will to change it. It also gave me new insight into my own fierce protectiveness over the right to choose.
I am looking forward to the day when women in the UK are no longer politicised by archaic laws that restrict our bodily autonomy — because they have ceased to exist.
Mandu Reid is the Leader of the Women’s Equality Party.
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There is nothing at all about this conviction that serves the public interest – this woman is of no risk to the public, she is not likely to go on to commit an offence, and it certainly isn’t good for her children.