Calls for abortion law change in England after couple sentenced for buying pills
Share:
Campaigners say case of Sophie Harvey and her partner exposes harmful and unnecessary criminalisation of women. The prosecution of a young couple who were handed community orders at Gloucester crown court more than six years after the stillbirth of a baby has led to renewed calls for abortion law reform in England.
Sophie Harvey and Elliot Benham, both now 25, were originally arrested on suspicion of murder after they disposed of a stillborn foetus. The couple, who were each 19 at the time, had sought a termination for an unwanted pregnancy, before discovering that Harvey was “too far gone” – beyond the legal time limit – with gestation estimated to be at about 28 weeks and five days.
At Gloucester crown court on Wednesday, the prosecution barrister Anna Vigars said that after they were denied a legal abortion Benham had searched online for alternatives, adding: “Some of them drugs, some of them herbal, none of them legal.”. Benham admitted ordering illegal abortion drugs by post, although the couple maintained that Harvey never took them and the baby was stillborn before the tablets arrived.
They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to procure a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage, and a second count of endeavouring to conceal the birth of a child. Abortion is illegal under English law and punishable with up to life in prison, but the Abortion Act of 1967 sets out certain scenarios in which an abortion can legally be carried out, with the approval of two doctors.
