Legislation that led to Carla Foster being jailed after procuring pills for a termination said to be ‘antiquated’

Prosecutors have been urged to heed a judge’s call for “compassion, not punishment” after the court of appeal halved a woman’s sentence for terminating her pregnancy beyond the legal time limit.

Carla Foster, 45, was sentenced to more than two years in prison after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between seven and eight months pregnant.