Police in the United Kingdom are using data from period tracking apps and mass spectrometry tests conducted on blood, placenta, and urine to investigate patients who have had “unexplained” miscarriages.

Though abortion is legal in the UK, there are TRAP laws in place requiring certain conditions to be met first, paramount of which is that two separate doctors need to agree that the patient meets the criteria of the 1967 Abortion Act before any treatment can go ahead. Self-managed abortion is a criminal offense with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in the UK, as is any abortion performed after the pregnancy has progressed passed 23 weeks and six days, unless the patient is at risk of serious physical harm or death, or the fetus has severe developmental anomalies.

  • HowMany@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Amazing how many governments are interested in making sure babies happen - to the point of sounding alarms.

    What do they know that they’re not telling? Is the pollution so bad that we’ve wiped ourselves out biologically?

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The birth rate is dropping almost everywhere and that’s bad for capitalism

        • LavaPlanet@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          They talk about this as if it’s mysterious. Not actually the fact that the working world is still based on one parent works and the other stays at home (offering their life in sacrifice to the system and providing the next generation for free, but I digress) but both parents HAVE to work to survive because the cost of living is through the roof. Child care costs too much, almost entirely wiping out one parents wage. And they could choose to offer incentives or address the reasons for the low birth rate, they know the reasons. But no, fear, criminalisation, those work better, as tools, to keep the chattel in line.

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe
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      8 months ago

      They know that democracy has always just been an illusion to keep us in line and that we are actually just chattel slaves for the ruling class. The system they built requires a stable or growing population when in fact it’s declining, so they’re taking the easy way out to boost numbers.

      In the future, they’ll just grow us in vats so if we get out if line, they will just murder us all and grow a new batch of slaves. Progress! 😃

      • HowMany@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        They allowed a human grade extinction event and now they’re got second thoughts? How… big brained monkey that sounds.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Self abortion can kill you. British law is made to protect you from yourself. Go to the doctor and everything will be fine. And free. And without you bleeding to death in your flat.

      • Urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 months ago

        Self-managed abortion is a criminal offense with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in the UK

        So… the punishment for doing something dangerous is life in prison? Someone who is administering an abortion themselves is desperate and probably not aware of services available to them. They’re the most vulnerable in society; someone your government should be helping and protecting.

        Further, this opens every single women who has had a miscarriage up to scrutiny. I don’t know if anyone has been jailed for miscarrying in the UK, but it happens in the US through similar laws, and it is tragic and barbaric.

        From the article:

        Although some involved women who were arrested for things such as falling down, or giving birth at home, the vast majority involved drugs, and women of colour were overrepresented.

        Here’s a particularly egregious example (This woman attempted to commit suicide by rat poison and survived, her baby did not).

        While I agree you probably shouldn’t use drugs while pregnant, obviously this won’t stop someone with an addiction. It just causes further harm to marginalized people to criminalize this stuff. These laws are used to hurt the poor and the addicted, and social services are better spent preventing these sort of things instead of punitive action.

        • Aux@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          There’s no point looking at the US for examples. UK is a different country and works differently. You are reminding me of some pro guns Americans, who say that since guns are banned in the UK (they are not, they are controlled) we have stabbings all day long, while in reality there are more stabbings per capita in the US. Or another common example of Americans thinking that self defence is illegal here and if you kill a burglar you’ll go to jail. While in reality there will be a proper hearing in the court and you’ll walk free because you were using reasonable force to protect yourself and your family.

          A lot of systems are crumbling in the UK due to Tory mismanagement, but the courts are still working as intended and do protect people, sometimes even from themselves.

    • Arrakis@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Women’s reproductive rights are a complex issue. On the one hand there’s killing babies; on the other there’s giving women a choice.

      Tough call.

      E: some of the PMs I’m getting for repeating this are absolute gold.

      E2: we’re all going to hell