'Outdated' abortion laws need overhaul, say MPs

AN overhaul of “outdated” abortion laws needs to be considered by Parliament, senior politicians and women’s rights campaigners said today.

- Rachael Burford

It follows a backlash after a mother-of-three was jailed for more than two years for procuring drugs to induce her own late-term termination.

Carla Foster, 44, was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she used medication under the “pills by post” scheme, introduced during the lockdowns for unwanted pregnancies up to 10 weeks.

Dame Diana Johnson, the chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, urged the Government to change laws so no woman found themselves in a similar situation again.

“I think Parliament has a role now to look at reforming our abortion laws,” she told BBC Radio 4.

“The Government should step up and say we should decriminalise, we should reform abortion law, take the criminal law out of this, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have regulation.”