Monday 28th April 2025
The charity the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, along with a coalition of more than 20 organisations led by the Prison Reform Trust, has written to the justice secretary raising serious concerns about the Sentencing Guidelines Bill. The Bill would prevent the Sentencing Council from giving judges advice on taking personal characteristics such as pregnancy into account when deciding whether to order a report from the probation service to help them decide on the appropriate sentence for someone. The full text of the letter is online here.
Heidi Stewart, Chief Executive of BPAS, said:
“Under the current sentencing guidelines, hundreds of pregnant women every year are sent to prison. These women face increased risk of miscarriage, pregnancy complications, and in some of the worst cases, the stillbirth or death of their newborn baby."
“These proposals would have changed the way pregnant women are treated by the justice system – recognising that there are very few instances where prison is a reasonable or acceptable sentence. Without them, we are deeply concerned for every pregnant woman who is incarcerated, endangering her health and her ability to access the healthcare she needs – whether that is choosing to continue her pregnancy or not.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact the BPAS press office on press@bpas.org or 07985 351751.
About BPAS
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, is a charity that sees over 100,000 women a year for reproductive healthcare services including pregnancy counselling, abortion care, miscarriage management and contraception at clinics across Great Britain.
BPAS exists to further women’s reproductive choices. We believe all women should have the right to make their own decisions in and around pregnancy, from the contraception they use to avoid pregnancy right the way through to how they decide to feed their newborn baby, with access to evidence-based information to underpin their choices and high-quality services and support to exercise them.
BPAS also runs the Centre for Reproductive Research and Communication, CRRC. Through rigorous multidisciplinary research and impactful communication, the CRRC aims to inform policy, practice, and public discourse. You can find out more here.