{"id":304983,"date":"2024-01-12T08:41:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T14:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=304983"},"modified":"2024-01-11T16:50:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T22:50:45","slug":"lack-key-not-guilty-uk-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lack-key-not-guilty-uk-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of &#8216;key evidence&#8217; leads to not guilty verdict in UK illegal abortion case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>A woman accused of taking abortion drugs at home during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 in the United Kingdom has been found not guilty of committing a crime.<\/p>\n<p>In June of 2020, Bethany Cox was said to have <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-woman-unlawful-self-abortion-survive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">taken misoprostol<\/a> (commonly used as the second of the two-drug abortion pill regimen) while at home, causing the death of her preborn child. Cox strongly denied it, insinuating that she had suffered a miscarriage. It is <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-case-renewed-calls-person-abortion\/\">believed<\/a> that Cox&#8217;s preborn child was beyond 22 weeks, and potentially beyond 28 weeks, based on the charges brought against Cox.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_227765\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-227765\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-227765\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks-700x381.jpg\" alt=\"7 month fetus, late abortion, 28 weeks, heart\" width=\"700\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks-700x381.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks-768x418.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks-500x272.jpg 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks.jpg 1197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-227765\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A human baby growing inside the womb. Age is about 7 months. (Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There were two charges filed against Cox. The first stated: \u201cOn 06\/07\/2020 at Stockton, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by a wilful act, namely administering drugs to procure abortion, contrary to section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, caused the child to die before it had an existence independent of its mother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The second charge states: \u201cBetween 02\/07\/2020 and 07\/07\/2020 at Stockton, being a woman with child, unlawfully administered to yourself a poison or other noxious thing, with intent to procure your own miscarriage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2024\/jan\/09\/teeside-woman-cleared-over-lockdown-abortion-charges-after-cps-offers-no-evidence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dropped the charges<\/a>, citing a lack of &#8220;key evidence&#8221; and arguing there was no chance of conviction. Her lawyer, Nicholas Lumley, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/bethany-cox-charges-dropped-against-woman-22-accused-of-carrying-out-home-abortion-during-covid-lockdown-13044887\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told Teesside Crown Court<\/a> in Middlesborough that the case should never have gone as far as it did to begin with.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gnEHZiud8dg?si=5g-_s_zzktJwibSP\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the throes of grief, she was interviewed and gave an account telling the police what she had done,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She was under investigation for three years, then prosecuted, then at the 11th hour, when the court and defence highlighted evidential difficulties&#8230; the defence statement echoes what she told police three years earlier, the evidential difficulties have always been there. The prosecution now accepts what she said to the police must have been right. That is beyond regrettable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Judge Paul Watson, the recorder of Middlesbrough, said the court had &#8220;no choice&#8221; but to give a verdict of not guilty for Cox.<\/p>\n<p>Even after the pandemic-related lockdowns were lifted, the abortion pill regimen remained available for women in the United Kingdom without medical supervision. Since 2019, there has been a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ambulance-calls-abortion-pill-64-uk-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">64% increase<\/a> in abortion-related emergency calls and ambulance dispatches, and at least one ambulance trust felt it necessary to create fetal mannequins at different stages so staff could properly manage the increase in emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>The UK\u2019s abortion industry giant, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), seemingly was unbothered, saying the increase in emergencies were due to women\u2019s &#8220;overreactions&#8221; to the pain and bleeding they have experienced when taking the abortion pill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/tell-congress-stop-the-doj-from-targeting-pro-life-americans\/?utm_campaign=doj_petition&amp;utm_medium=lan_website\"><b><i>The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail this Christmas for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A woman accused of taking abortion drugs at home during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 in the United Kingdom has been found not guilty of committing a crime. In June of 2020, Bethany Cox was said to have taken misoprostol (commonly used as the second of the two-drug abortion pill regimen) while at home, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":211146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lack of &#039;key evidence&#039; leads to not guilty verdict in UK illegal abortion case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A woman accused of taking abortion drugs at home during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 in the United Kingdom has been found not guilty.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lack-key-not-guilty-uk-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lack of &#039;key evidence&#039; leads to not guilty verdict in UK illegal abortion case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A woman accused of taking abortion drugs at home during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 in the United Kingdom has been found not guilty.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lack-key-not-guilty-uk-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-12T14:41:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-11T22:50:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/GettyImages-168278665-ultrasound-20-weeks.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1192\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lack-key-not-guilty-uk-abortion\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lack-key-not-guilty-uk-abortion\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Lack of &#8216;key evidence&#8217; 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