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Solidarity with Katie

Katie* is facing trial for ending a pregnancy, and is living with the stress and trauma of an ongoing police investigation into her NHS-prescribed abortion. This is all due to an outdated law from 1861 that makes abortion a criminal offence.

Abortion is healthcare, and should be treated as such. This is why Level Up is campaigning for the outdated 1861 law to be removed, and abortion to be decriminalised. Until we achieve that, the most important thing we can do is show solidarity with women who are still being prosecuted under these archaic laws.

It’s crucial that Katie knows the public are on her side – please share a message of support, and we will pass them onto Katie. 

* Katie is not her real name. 

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messages of solidarity

Dear Katie, I’m so sorry to learn about what you experienced and am furious on your behalf that something so unfathomable could happen to you. I spent a night in hospital due to a gynaecological procedure and felt suicidal, so can only imagine how you must have felt. You should have been safe and protected, not punished. I know words from strangers can’t undo the harm done to you, but I hope it brings you some comfort to know that people like me are on your side, sending love and compassion. I will continue to support Level Up’s campaign to decriminalise abortion and hope the legal system sees sense over your treatment (the moral crime is entirely theirs).

Hi Katie, Your story has made me so sad. It chills me that you have been treated this way simply for accessing medication. It’s disgusting. I offer you love, support and sisterhood. I have terminated two pregnancies, one surgically and one using pills as prescribed by a doctor. You should have been treated with love, compassion and respect. It is what you deserve in the face of a medical emergency. I am sure you know this but sometimes we need to hear it: it is not your fault. It is infuriating that after an experience like this you now have to face a bogus court case. You should be recovering from this traumatic health incident surrounded by love, not judgement. Sending you love, and solidarity, I will follow your case and hope very much to see compassion and justice throw the bloody thing out of the courts so you can heal. Jo

I’m so sorry to hear that you’re being prosecuted – I really don’t think that is at all fair and very much hope that with the right personal and legal support behind you, right will prevail and you will be found innocent. You’ve done nothing wrong and you shouldn’t be punished. I very much hope that the law will be changed and you and other people in your position won’t find yourselves on the receiving end of an outdated law which is totally inappropriate in the modern age. I wish you all the very best. Please look after yourself. Best wishes, Amanda, London

Amanda

Dear Katie* I just wanted to say how sorry I was hear about what you are going through and how you have been treated. It’s only in recent years that I have come to understand the kinds of issues facing women in some of our institutions when they are at their most vulnerable. Women in these situations should be treated with care and compassion and not subjected to what I consider to be institutional abuse. I hope it helps in some small way to know how many people care and are campaigning against the treatment you have received. With love Teresa x

I am so sorry that ‘Katie’ or any woman suffers such cruel behaviour by NHS and police system. To have to have an abortion is bad enough, without all of this criminalising it. Personally, I have never needed an abortion but have experienced such NHS cruelty when lying on hosp bed miscarrying an early foetus. After the curt nurse said that I had ‘finished bleeding’, she told me that I could ‘go home how’ as i was not pregnant. No kind words ar compassion. I was mid forties and had always very much wanted a baby – I was heart broken – but had to get up and make my way home alone. The pregnancy followed a date rape situation which was horrible but i accepted it (didn’t report it) wondering if i might have become pregnant. . . I do believe that men should be held responsible for every pregnancy esp when raped or coerced into having sex. Perhaps best if all men were neutered in early teens. This can be reversed in almost every case – and it is a simple quick minor surgery – much safer that all the contraceptives which women endure. Good luck to all women