Update 5/9/2025: A UK woman accused of having an illegal abortion has been acquitted by a jury.
Nicola Packer, the UK woman accused of taking the abortion pill at 26 weeks, two weeks past the 24-week limit for abortion and a four months beyond the 10 week abortion pill limit, has be acquitted of “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage.”
In November 2020, Packer took the abortion pill at home during the COVID-19 lockdown. She was prescribed the drugs over the phone. She delivered the baby and brought her to a hospital the following day in a backpack. She was arrested the next day and has denied knowing that she was 26 weeks pregnant at the time.
A jury at Isleworth Crown Court took six hours to unanimously choose to clear Packer of the charges.
5/6/2025: A woman in the United Kingdom (UK) is currently on trial for undergoing a chemical abortion in 2020 at 26 weeks pregnant, two weeks past the 24-week limit. Though prosecutors say this was intentional, she claims she didn’t realize how far along she was in her pregnancy when she took the abortion pill.
Nicola Packer, 45, was given abortion pills during the COVID-19 pandemic following a virtual consultation with an abortionist associated with Marie Stopes (now MSI Reproductive Choices), during which she said she believed she was 10 weeks pregnant. Afterwards, she delivered the body of her 26-week (six and a half months) baby, and went to the hospital seeking help with the baby in a backpack. She initially told hospital staff that she had suffered a miscarriage.
However, she changed her story several times; first, she claimed she was 16 to 18 weeks pregnant, and then said she was only 10 weeks pregnant. Later, she admitted to emergency room staff that she had taken abortion pills. She allegedly also searched the internet for “late miscarriage” and “how long does a later stage miscarriage take” after taking the first pill. While being questioned, she said she had been scared to tell the truth, and only did once she feel she could trust them.
“I thought if I went to the hospital with a dead baby they wouldn’t help me,” she said. “I don’t know why I thought that but that’s what I thought.”
Packer became emotional when testifying about seeing the body of her baby, and said if she had known she was six months pregnant, she wouldn’t have gone through with it, even though she still said she does not want any children.
“I just felt really bad, I didn’t know I was pregnant or that far along,” she said through tears. “If I had known I was that far along I wouldn’t have done it… I wouldn’t have put the baby or myself through it.”
READ: Women unprepared for abortion pill’s ‘excruciating pain’ and immense ‘blood clots’
Prosecutors have charged Packer with “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage.” While abortion is legal in the UK through 24 weeks gestation, at-home abortions are only legal through 10 weeks.
A new analysis reviewing insurance data of more than 865,000 mifepristone (abortion pill) prescriptions from 2017 to 2023 found a 22 times higher rate of “serious adverse events” (serious complications) than what is currently reported by the FDA. The later in pregnancy the pills are taken, the greater the risk of incomplete abortion — a complication that can lead to infection or sepsis, and even death.
This is almost certainly more likely when undergoing an at-home, ‘no-test’ abortion like Packer did, as there are no tests or ultrasounds performed to ensure the woman is fewer than 10 weeks pregnant, or that she does not have an extrauterine pregnancy. Without an ultrasound, it is impossible to know for sure how far along the pregnancy is or if there are any other contraindications for mifepristone.
