A leading provider of abortion services has received more than 30 demands to hand over medical records of women to police in the past four years, increasing to an average of one a month since October.
Rachael Clarke, the chief of staff at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said police had also escalated demands on other charities and NHS providers of abortion services in recent years.
“BPAS is acutely aware of the importance confidentiality has for our patients, and takes a robust approach to any police requests we receive. Our standard approach is to require a court order – and it should be a testament to how much overreach there is from the police in their requests that we are only aware of one such court order being issued since 2020,” she said.
Before 2020, there was an “underlying threat” that women whose pregnancies ended after 24 weeks, the legal limit for abortion, could be criminalised, “but it was a remote possibility”, she said. Now there was “genuine concern” about the rising number of investigations.
MPs are expected to vote in the coming weeks on an amendment that would remove the possibility of women being prosecuted for ending pregnancies after the legal limit of 24 weeks.
The Labour MP Diana Johnson is proposing a change to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which if it passes will mean doctors and nurses cannot terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks except in exceptional circumstances, but that abortion will be decriminalised for women who take steps to end their pregnancies outside that law, such as after the time limit.
“There are more than 220,000 abortions across the UK every year, and the number of women accused of breaking the law as a proportion of that is vanishingly small,” said Clarke. “But for those women, it has a huge impact. They are being subjected, at a really difficult and vulnerable time, to police investigation, to having medical tests, to potentially having their children taken away by social services, without any proof that they have done anything wrong.”
One of the cases BPAS dealt with involved a young woman under the age of 18 who was unable to access abortion services during lockdown. By the time she attended a clinic, she had passed the legal limit. She later delivered a stillborn baby, and was investigated by police on suspicion of abortion offences.
Another woman took medication and gave birth at home. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Police suspected she was the victim of trafficking and exploitation. While they were investigating her for abortion offences, she fled without receiving any further support.
Although police have launched scores of investigations, only a handful of women have been prosecuted, and one found guilty. Carla Foster had her 28-month prison sentence halved and suspended on appeal.
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Clarke said: “Since 2020, we have had 32 requests from police for women’s medical records, including five since October.” The increase coincides with a rise in the number of abortions since 2018, and a significant jump at the start of the Covid pandemic.
Two cases are expected to come to court this year. In one, a woman and her partner are accused of having obtained abortion medication online, ending their pregnancy after the 24-week legal limit and concealing foetal remains. The other case is subject to reporting restrictions.
If Johnson’s amendment passes, Clarke expects to see the law changed “pretty sharpish”. The chances of it passing are good, she said. “We have polled MPs, which has shown there is a majority of support, more than 50% compared to about 23% that oppose it.
“This amendment would not change anything about the way that abortion was provided. It wouldn’t change the criminalisation of doctors if they act outside the law. It wouldn’t change the requirements for two doctors’ signatures; it wouldn’t change the requirements to meet one of a number of grounds. All of that underlying abortion law remains the same. All [the amendment] does is say that women should not be criminalised if they act outside that law.”
