Prosecuted and traumatised for the mistake of taking abortion pill too late
The Observer
|May 18, 2025
Nicola Packer was still bleeding from major surgery when she was arrested, escorted by two police officers out of hospital and taken to Charing Cross police station, writes Phoebe Davis.
She saw patients and staff staring at her. "You look around to see if people are looking at you, thinking, 'Oh my God, what has she done?'"
Packer is sitting on her sofa at home in a small seaside town. The living room leads out on to a patio, where she likes to spend her evenings after work. She was arrested more than four years ago but Packer still lives with the aftermath.
"If I see police officers walking down the street, I'll cross the road," she says. "I'd avoid going to hospital now for any reason, if I could."
Last Thursday, at the end of a three-week trial, Packer was found not guilty of knowingly taking abortion pills after the legal limit.
This story is from the May 18, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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