Hull Crown Court has heard how an abusive man threatened to slit a baby’s throat if his ex-girlfriend refused to have an abortion. Michael Robinson, SPUC Director of Communications said: “We cannot ignore the fact that violence against pregnant women and their unborn children is increasingly an issue about which we need to raise awareness. Vicious threats such as this prove just how vital it is to protect vulnerable pregnant women. SPUC urges the Government to reverse all measures which would make it easier for abusive men to pressure women towards abortion.”
23-year-old George Young issued the “vicious threat” to his ex-girlfriend only weeks after being released from prison.
The Hull court heard how Young threatened to “kick” the baby in the womb of his/her mother if she refused to book an appointment at an abortion clinic. Young then told the expectant mother that if he ever saw the baby alive, he would slit its throat, before appearing with a knife and threatening to take his own life if she continued with the pregnancy.
SPUC’s Mr Robinson said: “We know that intimate partner violence often starts or gets worse during pregnancy and statistics show that murder has become a leading cause of death for pregnant women. Sadly, in March this year, the UK Government made it easier for abusive men to force their pregnant partners into getting abortions through the pills-by-post abortion policy.”
The pills-by-post policy was introduced as a result of the nationwide lockdown enacted in light of the Coronavirus pandemic and allows for abortion drugs to be obtained through a phone call, without the pregnant woman ever having to meet a doctor face-to-face.
SPUC has stressed that the programme effectively allows abusive men easy access to abortion drugs and abandons vulnerable pregnant women.
Growing violence against pregnant women and unborn children
SPUC has been reporting for some time now on the rise of violence against pregnant women, across Britain.
In 2016 a 22-year-old man kicked and stamped on his pregnant girlfriend's stomach when she was eight months pregnant because she refused to have an abortion.
In the same year a 41-year-old man was jailed for repeatedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend who was also eight months pregnant.
A rise in domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown appears to have occurred with the UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, Refuge, reporting a 700 per cent increase in activity on its helpline website during one single day.
SPUC’s Mr Robinson added: “It is deplorable that during a time of rising domestic violence, the government has implemented reckless abortion regulations which put vulnerable women at greater risk of one of the very worst forms of domestic violence – being forced into an abortion.
“With the abortion process now being carried out remotely, medical professionals have no way of knowing who is really on the other end of the phone, if she is being coerced into an abortion, or if the abuser is in the room with her.
“Home abortions facilitate a serious form of domestic violence by opening the opportunity for unchecked coercion from abusive men and an opportunity for abusers to cover their tracks. The Government has handed vicious men the power to abuse women in one of the worst possible ways.”