Measures allowing women to self-induce medical abortions at home, without meeting with a medical professional in person, were first approved at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the more than four years since this “pills by post” policy has been in place, evidence of the risk it poses to women, and the difficulties of regulating it, has been mounting.

The consequences of the policy were drawn to public attention when Carla Foster, a mother from Staffordshire, was sentenced to imprisonment after it was found that she lied to abortion provider BPAS to obtain abortion drugs well past the legal limit for abortion. Her daughter Lily was born dead at 32-34 weeks’ gestation.

Abortion providers have used this case and others to argue that abortion should be decriminalised. SPUC believes that it is the policy allowing abortion providers to send abortion drugs to women in the post without proper checks that needs changing, not the law on abortion.

In this new Parliament, we are lobbying MPs to call for a review of this policy. Sign up to our email list to keep up to date with how you can campaign with us on this issue.