The family of a woman jailed for illegally procuring her own abortion have revealed that they are ‘angry and embarrassed’ by the controversial case.
Carla Foster, 44, who lived in the Staffordshire village of Barlaston, lied about how advanced her pregnancy was in order to obtain abortion-causing drugs.
She was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant when she received the medication from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service under the ‘pills by post’ scheme. Most abortions in England are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Since being imprisoned for 28 months, Foster’s family have barely come out of their homes and have told friends that the verdict has left them devastated.
The close-knit family, made up of Carla’s two sisters and elderly father live just a ten minute walk from each other in Stoke-on-Trent while Carla lives just a short drive away.
Mother-of-three Carla Foster was jailed for 28 months
MPs have called for Britain’s ‘out-of-date’ abortion legislation to be reviewed
A family friend told MailOnline: ‘The family are broken and struggling to come to terms with what’s happened. They need some time together to process it all and can’t speak about it at the moment.
‘On one hand they are very angry that Carla has been sent to prison because whatever wrong she might have done, she didn’t deserve that.
‘She’s hardly a dangerous criminal, is she? And on the other hand, they feel very embarrassed because of the details that have come out about her personal life.’
The friend added: ‘It’s not the sort of thing any father wants to see being published in the newspapers about his daughter.
‘Carla’s dad and the rest of the family have had a terrible year. Last year their mum died and now this has happened.
‘It’s a very painful and devastating time for the family so they just want to have their privacy and be left alone.’
During Foster’s trial, the court heard that she had been having sex with two men and did not know which was the father when she became pregnant.
She carried out internet searches from February 2020 onwards that included ‘How to lose a baby at six months’. In April she searched for ‘I need to have an abortion but I’m past 24 weeks’.
She spoke to a nurse practitioner at BPAS on May 6, 2020, leading the nurse to believe that she was around seven weeks pregnant. Her child, a girl, was born not breathing on May 11, 2020.
A post mortem examination recorded cause of death as stillbirth and maternal use of abortion drugs.
Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty.
But she later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Foster pleaded guilty to a charge under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Foster posted this message on Facebook at 7pm on Sunday, the day before her sentencing
Ahead of the sentencing, a letter was sent to the court from leaders of health organisations calling for a non-custodial sentence.
Despite a plea for leniency from medical bodies and charities which wrote to the judge, she was jailed for two years and four months at Stoke Crown Court earlier this week.
Mr Justice Pepperall said she was ‘plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face’ and accepted she was a ‘good mother’ to her three children, one of whom has special needs.
Hours before she was jailed Foster posted on Facebook a text image that said: ‘No one has the right to judge you because no one knows what you’ve been through. They may have heard stories, but they didn’t feel what you felt.’
Foster also posted a text image on Sunday evening around 7pm, saying: ‘Life has knocked me down a few times, it showed me things I never wanted to see. I experienced sadness and failures. But one thing for sure, I always get up.’
Most abortions in England are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy. They can only be carried out after 24 weeks in very specific circumstances such as if the mother’s life is at risk or if the child would have a severe disability when born.
The case sparked a major row involving abortion providers, MPs and pro-life campaigners – amid calls for Parliament to consider overhauling ‘out-of-date’ laws, and others highlighting ‘inadequacy of the safeguards for this regime of abortion’.
But Catherine Robinson, spokesman for the pro-life charity Right To Life UK, said: ‘The abortion provider BPAS should never have sent abortion pills to this vulnerable woman when her baby was at 32 weeks gestation – that’s around eight months.’
