A woman on trial accused of having an illegal abortion has said she told hospital staff she had miscarried as she feared them knowing the truth would affect the level of care she received.
Nicola Packer, 45, took abortion medicine during the Covid lockdown in November 2020, after being prescribed the pills in a remote consultation with a registered provider, a jury at Isleworth crown court heard.
She is charged with “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage”.
The prosecution allege she had known she was beyond the legal time limit when she took the medication, mifepristone and misoprostol, which Packer denies.
Packer wept as she gave evidence at her trial in west London, telling the jury she thought that she could have died after giving birth to a foetus which was about six months old.
She told the jury she had sincerely believed that she was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of the abortion, and was “shocked” to have given birth to a significantly more developed foetus.
The defendant initially told hospital staff that she believed she was between 16 and 18 weeks pregnant and had miscarried, before telling staff she was 10 weeks pregnant and had taken abortion medication once she began to “trust” them.
“What do you mean by trust?” asked Alexandra Felix KC for the prosecution. “What on earth made you think that medical professionals wouldn’t help you?”
“I thought if I went to the hospital with a dead baby they wouldn’t help me,” replied Packer. “I don’t know why I thought that but that’s what I thought.”
Felix told the jury that Packer was aware she was more than 10 weeks pregnant at the time, and changed her story when she “knew the game was up”.
She denied this, and told the jury that had she known she was that far into her pregnancy, she wouldn’t have taken the pills.
Packer, visibly upset throughout much of the cross-examination, also told the jury that she gave the hospital staff inaccurate times in relation to the abortion because she was “going through a really traumatic event”.
The staff informed her that, considering the size of the foetus and the circumstances of the delivery, they would have to inform the police.
Packer was arrested after attending hospital, having taken the foetus – which was estimated to be about 26 weeks’ gestation – with her in a bag, the trial previously heard.
The medication had been prescribed to Packer under legislation introduced during the Covid pandemic, which allowed pills to be sent by post in cases of pregnancies under 10 weeks’ gestation.
Terminations are usually available up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy, with no time limits in place in certain circumstances, such as evidence of a severe foetal anomaly, or if the mother’s life is at risk.
The trial continues.