this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
21 points (95.7% liked)

United Kingdom

3931 readers
5 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

"Bethany Cox is the fourth woman to be prosecuted in the last eight months for allegedly carrying out her own abortion, with only three trials in the 160 years before that, according to campaigners.

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I can't believe we still have laws against this. It's not an offence against a person when there's no person.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive

These are extremely late self administered abortions. Absolutely tragic for all involved and the current laws may not be appropriate but although most people agree that a collection of cells or tiny foetus is not a person yet… when someone is at a point in the pregnancy where the baby can be born and survive then I don’t think it’s as simple.

Note: I’m assuming that’s what the line meant about being capable of being born alive (as the other recent case I was aware of was a really really late abortion and I think this is a similar case based on the posted link)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


A 22-year-old woman accused of procuring a poison to abort her child shortly after the first Covid lockdown is due to appear before a judge this week.

Bethany Cox is the fourth woman to be prosecuted in the last eight months for allegedly carrying out her own abortion, with only three trials in the 160 years before that, according to campaigners.

Cox, of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-on-Tees, appeared before Teesside magistrates court last month charged with child destruction and procuring her own miscarriage “by poison/use of instrument”.

She was charged under section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which makes it an offence for a woman to unlawfully procure her own abortion.

The first charge reads: “On 06/07/2020 at Stockton, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by a wilful act, namely administering drugs to procure abortion, contrary to section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, caused the child to die before it had an existence independent of its mother.”

The second charge reads: “Between 02/07/2020 and 07/07/2020 at Stockton, being a woman with child, unlawfully administered to yourself a poison or other noxious thing, with intent to procure your own miscarriage.”


I'm a bot and I'm open source!