A leaked recording has suggested that the Metropolitan Police were uncomfortable arresting a woman accused of having an illegal abortion. Abortion is only legal in the UK if certain strict criteria are met.
Nicola Packer was arrested in hospital in November 2020 for “child destruction” after delivering a stillborn baby at home.
Packer said she believed she was just six weeks pregnant when she had an online consultation for a pills-by-post system. Telemedicine abortions were first introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and have since been made permanent.
Abortions are legal up to 23 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy in England, Scotland and Wales, provided two doctors agree that it would cause less harm to the woman's physical or mental health, or the health of existing children, than continuing the pregnancy. After 24 weeks, abortions are generally only permitted if the woman's life is at risk or if there is a severe fetal abnormality.
However, Packer (who says she has endometriosis and irregular periods) was 26 weeks pregnant, with the pills leading her to deliver a stillborn baby.
In a new interview with BBC Radio 4, Packer explains she was “terrified” before seeking medical assistance at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
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“I didn’t have any symptoms of pregnancy,” she explains. “There were pictures up until September with a flat stomach. No changes to eating or drinking. It was completely insane to me that I could get so far into a pregnancy and to not know about it. If I had known, I wouldn’t have just left it.”
Just one day after Packer had to have emergency surgery, she was questioned and arrested by uniformed police officers in her hospital bed after staff at the hospital informed the authorities. She was still bleeding when she was put into a police van, and had to stay in a police cell for 24 hours.
However, during this time, police were having doubts about whether an arrest was necessarily the best way forward.
In the leaked audio from a 2020 digital meeting between Metropolitan Police officers and healthcare professionals, the Met's former child abuse investigation lead can be heard expressing concerns.
“A DI was spoken to, who has experience in child abuse, and she very much was of the opinion there should be an arrest,” he can be heard saying. “Discussions were had as to whether this was the most sensitive way of dealing with this and what we would actually gain from this evidentially.
“That DI then spoke to a Superintendent and they shared the opinion that there should be an arrest.”
The recording, which has been released by the BBC, continues: “We had internally been reviewing that decision to make an arrest – we have concerns in how that investigation has developed, but there are definitely valid discussions to be had whether an arrest in this circumstances was best for Nicola herself.
“Certainly, for myself and the team working on this share this [view], it’s an uncomfortable area for police to be operating in, any criminalisation around abortions isn’t something that sits well with us or that we have really very much experience in at all.”
While the Crown Prosecution Service initially said they did not intend to prosecute, the police asked for a review, which resulted in the CPS charging Packer in 2023. She was acquitted earlier this month.
Packer now plans to file a complaint with the Metropolitan Police, the CPS and the NHS over her treatment.
In response to the leaked recordings, a spokesperson for the Met Police told the BBC that the force does not comment on the content of internal meetings, which are designed to allow for full and frank discussions so that issues can be explored thoroughly and decisions made in a considered manner.
The Met Police also added how ‘incredibly difficult’ the case had been for Packer, but said its officers had conducted an evidence-led investigation “impartially and without favour”.
“The public rightly expects us to pursue the truth - even in sad and complex circumstances”, the spokesperson said.
Staff at the Chelsea and Westminster “acted in line with the processes and guidance available to them”, a hospital spokesperson told the BBC. “Their first priority, as in all cases, was to support and provide care to the patient.”
A CPS spokesperson also told the BBC: “Prosecutors exercise the greatest care when considering these complex and traumatic cases. Our role was not to decide whether Nicola Packer's actions were right or wrong; but to make a factual judgement about whether she knew she was beyond the legal limit when she accessed abortion medication."
Packer’s experience comes as Cosmopolitan UK has partnered with leading abortion provider BPAS to campaign to ‘End 1861’ and call for urgent law reform that would decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. It hopes to see the rare cases, like Packer’s, to be treated with compassion rather than prosecution.
You can find out more information about the campaign here.
Kimberley Bond is a Multiplatform Writer for Harper’s Bazaar, focusing on the arts, culture, careers and lifestyle. She previously worked as a Features Writer for Cosmopolitan UK, and has bylines at The Telegraph, The Independent and British Vogue among countless others.
