Abortion should be turned from a criminal justice issue into a public health one

One of the many things I have learnt from working in criminal justice for more than 30 years is that prison should be the last resort for women. I saw how prison simply didn’t work for many vulnerable women, and that families were often ruined and children put into care. In far too many cases, the law was a blunt instrument that served no purpose.As a prosecutor, you don’t get to make the laws, but you see how poor ones fail people and wider society.The recent conviction of a woman for illegally procuring a late abortion by lying to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) about how many weeks into her pregnancy she was, is another appalling example.The woman, aged 44, told BPAS in 2020 she was around seven weeks pregnant when she was in fact well into her third trimester.1 She was aware of that fact, as evidenced by…
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