‘Abortion drug killer’ imprisoned

A paramedic who killed his girlfriend’s baby using abortion drugs without her knowledge has been sent to prison.

Earlier this month, at the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Colbeck sentenced Stephen Doohan to more than ten years in prison after he pleaded guilty to assault, sexual assault and causing an abortion.

The senior Scottish judge noted that the defendant had assaulted his then partner twice over the course of two days by secretly injecting her with the abortion drug misoprostol during sex. The unborn baby died several days later.

Serious offence

Lord Colbeck told Doohan he had left the bereft mother “facing a lifetime of pain and loss”. He added: “In addition to the physical pain you caused, your actions have caused clearly significant and long term psychological injury.

“Taken together, the offences committed by you are, frankly, almost as serious as any this court is ever asked to sentence.”

A Scottish Ambulance Service investigation revealed that Doohan had accessed information on misoprostol at work the day he heard of his girlfriend’s pregnancy. It is unclear how Doohan acquired the drugs.

‘Pills by post’

Last year, Norfolk resident Stuart Worby was found guilty of spiking an unnamed woman’s drink in August 2022, which caused the death of her 15-week-old baby.

Co-defendant Nueza Cepeda pleaded guilty to supplying him with the pills, which she obtained following a phone consultation with abortion provider The Gynae Centre.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, women in England and Wales had to attend a face-to-face consultation with a medical professional before they could be given abortion pills, at least one of which was then taken in a supervised medical environment.

But following a change in the law, made permanent in 2022, women less than ten weeks pregnant can procure the pills after a phone consultation, with the pills then posted to them. The lack of an in-person meeting means women who are above the ten-week limit, and even women who are not pregnant can obtain the pills.

Decriminalisation

In June, Westminster voted to further liberalise abortion law in England and Wales, despite pleas to protect unborn children and their mothers.

MPs approved Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill by 379 votes to 137. It allows a woman to kill her unborn baby at any stage of pregnancy without sanction.

The House of Commons also rejected a proposal to reinstate in-person consultations under the pills-by-post scheme.

Following the votes, Scottish MPs called for more liberal abortion laws north of the border.