Baby Lily’s death is being exploited by the pro-abortion lobby to decriminalise abortion. Tell your MP NO
Before the COVID pandemic, pro-abortion MPs in Parliament made several attempts to decriminalise abortion - that is, remove it from the criminal law. For instance, on 23 October 2018 Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill, seeking to amend Section 58 and to repeal Sections 59 and 60 of the Offences Against the Persons Act. If this had made the statute book, it would have had the effect of removing any criminal sanctions associated with abortion.
Now the abortion lobby, including Ms Johnson, and abortion provider BPAS, are using one woman's tragic and unlawful decision to obtain a very late abortion to push once more for decriminalisation. Baby Lily was stillborn at around 32 weeks gestation after her mother Carla Foster obtained abortion pills by giving false information to BPAS' telemedicine abortion line. Ms Foster was sentenced to 28 months imprisonment on 12 June 2023. On 18 July, three judges said Ms Foster's sentence would be reduced to 14 months, and that it should be suspended.
Within minutes of the sentence being handed down, BPAS launched a campaign website, with a mechanism to contact MPs calling for decriminalisation of abortion. This is the same BPAS who enthusiastically campaigned for the pills by post policy, where abortion drugs are sent to women in the post to self-administer these drugs with no medical supervision or support. They sent the pills to Carla Foster, with no ultrasound or physical examination, no in person appointment to check on her wellbeing. Now they are using this awful case to campaign to remove abortion from the law entirely.
We need to make it clear to MPs that this tragic case should not be used to remove all protection from unborn babies. Indeed, baby Lily’s death shows that safeguards around the pills by post scheme are entirely inadequate, and it should be scrapped.
Please urgently contact your MP about this case. We are not providing a full template email, as it is very important that this message be written in your own words. MPs need to hear the real concerns of their constituents. Here’s some resources to help you write your message:
How to do this
- Enter your postcode in the tool. This will bring up who your MP is, together with an editable email template. This template contains a link to SPUC’s briefing for MPs, and leaves space for you to write your own message to your MP.
- Edit the email template to explain in your own words why you are concerned about this case, and why abortion should not be decriminalised. Make sure you do this so that the message makes sense!
- Press Submit. Your email will be automatically sent to your MP.