Northern Ireland Woman Faces Suspended Sentence for Terminating Pregnancy

The 21-year-old woman from Northern Ireland was given a suspended three-month prison sentence after buying drugs online to induce a miscarriage on July 12, 2014, multiple reports said.

Via The Guardian:

A Northern Irish woman who bought pills over the internet to induce an abortion has been given a suspended prison sentence.

The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to procuring her own abortion by using a poison, and of supplying a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage, and was given a three-month sentence suspended for one year.

Her barrister told Belfast crown court on Monday that if his client had lived anywhere else in the UK, she would “not have found herself before the courts”. Northern Ireland is the only region of the UK where abortion is still illegal.

The defence barrister said that at the time the woman was 19 and living with people she barely knew. His client felt “isolated and trapped … with no one to turn to” and resorted to “desperate measures”.

The barrister said the woman had since had a baby with her partner and “was trying to put her life back together again”.