‘7 police officers raided my house while I tried to resuscitate my baby’

A leading abortion charity shares the gut-wrenching stories of three women who have been accused of having an illegal abortion under Britain’s “archaic” abortion laws

On the back of an MPs debate over an e-petition calling for the decriminalisation of abortion in the UK, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has shared three harrowing cases of women affected under what have been described by campaigners as “archaic” laws around women’s bodily autonomy.

Each year, around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK, according to the NHS. One was born to Sammy*, who went into premature labour at home. But as she resuscitated her baby, seven police officers searched her bins, before the paramedics had even arrived.

Sammy was then interviewed by police under caution for a suspected illegal abortion and her phone and computer were seized. Her home was sealed off “like a crime scene”. She was left in the clothes she was admitted to hospital in, and was barred from contacting her partner.

READ MORE: Inside the Victorian era law of 1861 that governs abortion rights in the UK

Despite providing forensic samples that did not show the presence of abortion drugs, she remained under police investigation for a year. Her baby had luckily survived despite the traumatic birth. However, Sammy was only allowed limited, supervised contact with them.

As horrific as this scenario sounds, it’s one that has been made possible through the current laws surrounding abortion in the UK. The Abortion Act was introduced in 1967 and allowed women to terminate a pregnancy up to 28 weeks with the certification of two doctors. In 1990, the limit was changed to 24 weeks.

Meanwhile, the punishment for abortion can be severe. Abortion laws in the UK still fall under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which means that undergoing an abortion without the permission of two doctors, or after 24 weeks, can carry a life sentence.

In the 10 years leading up to April 2022, England and Wales recorded at least 67 cases of procuring an illegal abortion, according to data obtained by The Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

Katherine O’Brien, a spokesperson for BPAS, says that more than a hundred women have been investigated by the police over recent years. She told The Mirror: “These include women who have experienced a late miscarriage or a stillbirth, and women who were pressured to take abortion medication by abusive partners. Women have been arrested straight from hospital wards, their homes searched, their children taken away, all under our cruel and archaic abortion law.”

In December 2024, an e-petition calling for the decriminalisation of abortion in the UK. It received 102,855 signatures, before being brought to the UK parliament in April. The petition stated: “I am calling on the UK government to remove abortion from criminal law so that no pregnant person can be criminalised for procuring their own abortion.”

These laws affect women at all different stages in life. For example, Laura*, already the mother to a toddler, was studying at university when she pled guilty to ending her own pregnancy using illicit medication.

READ MORE: ‘We’re empowering women to take charge of their health – new police guidance pushes us back’

She was told by prosecution that if she didn’t plead guilty she would likely be jailed for life. She ended up being sentenced to more than two years in prison.

She reported to BPAS at the time that she was in a physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive relationship, and that her partner told her not to go to the doctor. After she was arrested, he told her that he would kill her if she told anyone he was involved. He was never investigated by the police.

Meanwhile, Sophie* was just a teenager when she was arrested at midnight and held in custody for 19 hours. She was suspected of ending her own pregnancy using illicit medication. In fact, the police raid was the first time her parents learnt that she had been pregnant.

She was described by the prosecution as “being vulnerable”. Despite this, she faced two trials. Throughout the proceedings, she maintained that she had had a traumatic stillbirth after only finding out she was pregnant after 24 weeks. The charge that she had ended her own pregnancy was dropped, but only after six years, and she still received a criminal record.

*Names have been changed for anonymity