Anti-abortion group demands harsher sentence for Northern Irish woman convicted of terminating pregnancy

Northern Irish anti-abortion group Precious Life says the three-month suspended sentence is 'very lenient' and sends a 'dangerous message' to women

The girl was arrested after her flatmates found the remain of a male foetus (Getty Images)

An anti-abortion group has called for prosecutors to appeal against the "lenient" suspended sentence given to a 21-year-old woman convicted of breaking Northern Ireland’s abortion ban.

The woman was found guilty at Belfast Crown Court of buying abortion pills online and taking them at her home. The woman, who was 19 at the time of the incident, told the court that she tried to raise enough money to travel to England to have a legal abortion but was unable to and so took the pills at home. Her housemates reported her to police after they found blood stained items in her room and foetal remains in a bin. She was given a three-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Precious Life, Northern Ireland’s leading anti-abortion group, criticised the sentence saying it is “too lenient” and sends out a “dangerous message” to other women experiencing a crisis pregnancy.

Director Bernadette Smyth said: “The woman in this case accepts that she committed a crime by procuring her own abortion by purchasing abortion pills online. Precious Life is very shocked that this judge’s sentencing was so manifestly lenient in respect of such a serious crime.

“It’s sending out a dangerous message and could set a dangerous precedent for future cases of illegal abortions here in Northern Ireland. We are in a crisis situation here, it’s a human crisis and we, Precious Life, have sent to the PPS for NI (Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland) our concerns calling for this case to be brought back to the appeals court.”

Unlike the rest of the UK, abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland where the 1967 Abortion Act does not apply. In November, Belfast High Court ruled that the ban is a breach of international human rights law and called on Stormont to pass legislation relaxing the law. However, in February, Stormont voted to keep the ban regardless.

Currently, the legislation governing the region on the issue is the 1861 Offences Against The Person Act, under which anyone who has an abortion in Northern Ireland risks a sentence of up to life in prison.