
Tamer / stock.adobe.com
CV NEWS FEED // Right To Life UK is urging the government to halt the mailing of abortion pills following the conviction of a man who poisoned a pregnant woman with the pills, killing her baby.
Stuart Worby, 40, from Dereham, Norfolk, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting a pregnant woman and forcing her to take abortion pills without her knowledge, BBC reported.
Worby’s sentence did not include charges related to the death of the child because UK law does not classify the intentional killing of an unborn person as a homicide. By contrast, in many countries and several United States states, such an act could result in additional charges of murder or manslaughter under laws like the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (2004).
In 2022, Worby crushed a mifepristone pill and mixed it into the victim’s orange juice. The following day, he administered the misoprostol while sexually assaulting her, the BBC reported.
The mifepristone pill blocks the hormone progesterone from reaching a woman’s uterus, which breaks down the lining of the uterine wall and kills the unborn child. The misoprostol pill then induces cramping and bleeding, causing the delivery of the now-dead baby.
The victim’s baby died within hours of the assault.
In a victim impact statement, the woman expressed that although she has started a new relationship since the traumatic experience, she has been unable to conceive.
“The only baby that I could have had was the one I lost,” she said.
She added, “This pain will never leave me knowing that this baby could have been my only chance to be a mother in this lifetime.”
Right To Life UK is advocating for the suspension of the postal delivery of abortion pills, a practice introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, in light of this case.
Worby had acquired the abortion pills through a friend, Neuza Cepeda, who posed as a pregnant woman” in need of an abortion” and received a prescription by mail after a phone consultation with a London clinic, BBC reported.
Right To Life UK contended in a press release that Worby’s crime and the baby’s death would have been avoided if pills-by-post had not been introduced.
“If at-home abortions had not been introduced, Stuart Worby would not have been able to obtain these pills from this abortion provider, and this tragic case would not have happened,” spokesperson Catherine Robinson said. “The woman involved would not have been poisoned and her baby would not have had his or her life ended.”
Cepeda, 39, pleaded guilty to supplying the medication with the intent to procure a miscarriage and received a sentence of 22 months in prison, suspended for two years, BBC reported.
Right To Life UK is also calling for a full inquiry into the Gynae Centre, which provided the abortion pills Worby used, the press release said. The center is the fourth-largest private abortion provider in the country.
The Department for Health and Social Care has indicated that there are no current plans to review the pills-by-post system, according to the BBC.
