Full text: Carla Foster’s sentencing remarks

On 12 June, Carla Foster, 44, was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment at Stoke on Trent crown court for aborting her unborn baby using abortion pills after the legal cut-off point of 24 weeks. Here are the remarks made by the judge, the Hon. Mr Justice Pepperall, during her sentencing:

1. This case concerns one woman’s tragic and unlawful decision to obtain a very late abortion. The balance struck by the law between a woman’s reproductive rights and the rights of her unborn foetus is an emotive and often controversial issue. That is, however, a matter for parliament and not for the courts.
   
   While an abortion is available in limited other circumstances, the principal rule under the Abortion Act 1967 is that a pregnancy can be lawfully terminated up to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. Early medical abortions, being abortions performed in the first ten weeks of pregnancy, usually involve the prescription of two drugs.