A woman jailed for illegally taking abortion pills to abort her baby at home when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant is to be freed.

Carla Foster, 44, is being released after the Court of Appeal reduced her 28-month prison sentence to 14 months suspended. 

"It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment," said Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday. 

Foster carried out the abortion at home during the first lockdown in May 2020 using pills sent to her by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) on the basis of information she provided that led the abortion provider to believe she was seven weeks pregnant - three weeks below the legal threshold for using the pills by post service.

Her release has been welcomed by BPAS and pro-abortion campaigners who have called existing laws "cruel" and "antiquated", and are calling for full decriminalisation. 

Pro-life group Right to Life UK, however, has expressed alarm about the calls for decriminalisation and is instead urging a full inquiry into how Foster was able to procure the pills from BPAS. 

Right to Life UK is calling for legal protections for the unborn to remain, and a return to in-person appointments before abortions take place to ensure that the gestation of babies can be accurately assessed.

Spokeswoman for the group, Catherine Robertson, said, "The government must firmly reject changing legislation to make abortion legal right up to birth, as is proposed by abortion campaigners, led by BPAS, who are using this tragic case to call for the removal of more abortion safeguards and to build momentum for their campaign to introduce abortion up to birth across the United Kingdom.

"At at least 32 weeks or around 8 months gestation, Baby Lily was a fully formed human child. If her mother had been given an in-person appointment by BPAS, she would still be alive.

"Rather than take responsibility for sending out abortion pills 22 weeks beyond the legal limit for at-home abortions and risking the health of the mother as well as her unborn child, this same abortion provider, BPAS, is now cynically exploiting this woman's tragic experience of using its abortion service to lobby the Government to give in to demands from the campaign they are leading in order to introduce abortion up to birth."

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is urging supporters to contact their MPs asking them to resist efforts towards full decriminalisation.

Alithea Williams, Public Policy Manager at SPUC, said, "We need 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."

Bishop John Sherrington, the Catholic Church's Lead Bishop for Life Issues, said: "I reiterate the consistent teaching of the Church that both the mother and the unborn child should be afforded the protection of the law and that abortion is always a tragedy for all concerned.

"It is important that the law which protects the life of the unborn child is upheld. In this case I welcome the court's decision to show mercy and compassion so that Carla Foster is reunited with her children and her family life can continue."

He added, "I raise again the concern that telemedicine (pills by post), which allows the home termination of pregnancies of up to 10 weeks, is dangerous for the health of women."