Inside social media’s illicit abortion trade – where a late termination costs £350
It’s taken less than 10 minutes to find someone willing to sell me abortion pills.
Dr Jane* tells me she is based in Dubai but assures me the medication will arrive in the UK in a matter of days. How pregnant you are doesn’t matter – she provides pills as late as eight months.
*Warning: This article contains some material readers may find disturbing*
But I am not in the late stages of pregnancy, and this is not the depths of the dark web we are messaging on,
This is Facebook and I’ve told Dr Jane I’m a journalist. I found her within minutes of searching for abortion pills on the site.
In the last two years, six women have faced trial in Britain for allegedly illegally procuring their own abortions, compared to just three convictions between 1861 and 2022.
In Britain, abortions are free on the NHS with pills used up to 10 weeks and when COVID hit, these were made available by post.
Medical (using pills) and surgical abortions can be performed up to 24 weeks. After this, abortions can only be performed in a limited number of circumstances, such as if the mother’s life is at risk.
Abortions have risen to the highest number on record in England and Wales, with 251,377 taking place in 2022. Abortion provider MSI Reproductive Choices said it believes pressures due to the cost-of-living crisis combined with a lack of access to contraception through stretched NHS services are both “playing a bigger role” in this.
In 2023, Carla Foster was jailed for lying to the Pills by Post scheme and taking abortion pills at 32 weeks pregnant. She spent a month in prison before an appeal moved her sentence to a suspended one.
But despite the increased availability of pills on the NHS through such schemes, abortion medication is still being sold on social media sites to people without a prescription.
Using pills bought online to abort a pregnancy is illegal under the UK’s 1861 abortion law – half of the women who faced trial since 2022 had acquired them this way.
Found within a few clicks, the pills are sold by people claiming to be doctors, but whose credentials are almost impossible to verify.
Dr Jane’s profile picture is of a smiling woman with a stethoscope around her neck – but that image is actually taken from the website of a retina specialist in Florida.
The fake Dr Jane told me via Messenger that she is a nurse in Dubai and smuggles the pills out of the hospital where she works.
For an early-stage pregnancy, it is £150. Anything above six months costs £300.
Pills can be taken as late as eight months, she says, and sends graphic images of foetuses claiming to have helped abort them. Their tiny features are visible and veined, and they are clearly dead. But whether she did help abort them is difficult to know.
A medical expert who looked at the images for me said it is impossible to tell if they were generated by AI or at what stage the miscarriages occurred. But they said they would question the credibility of anyone who sent images like these as “proof”.
“Abortion is a woman’s right. It shouldn’t be illegal,” Dr Jane says. No woman, she claims, has ever died from pills she has sold.
Eventually, she stops answering my questions and when I go to message her a week later, her account is gone.
“Dr Jane” is not an anomaly. When her account disappears, there are still dozens of others to choose from.
Prices for a pack of pills vary from £190 to more than £300 – although one seller on Telegram says I can bulk buy 10 “abortion kits” for £575 if I am interested in selling them.
In contrast, the pills are actually “very cheap” to buy direct from the manufacturer for NHS and medical providers, one gynaecologist tells me. One costs approximately 17p per tablet and the other is £10.14 per tablet.
In one Facebook group, a woman posts about needing help. Within minutes, there are multiple comments from sellers offering advice and pills. Some sellers openly post WhatsApp numbers they use to deal directly with buyers.
After I join one of these groups, I receive a message from Layla*.
Layla’s Facebook picture comes from Pinterest. With red hair, lurid eyeshadow, and black-ringed lips, it gives her account a dark feel.
I ask what she would do for someone who was over the UK’s legal limit.
Layla tells me she has done this before, that aborting after 24 weeks is going to be “painful”.
“You are going to push a baby out,” she says.
She claims to have helped one woman (not in the UK) who was 29 weeks pregnant.
Buying abortion pills from her would cost £358 as, like with Dr Jane, the price rises the later a woman is in her pregnancy. The money is paid via GCash, a Filipino payment service, which suggests that is where she is based but she claims to ship pills all around the world.
“I have a lot of clients who went through the process and they all come out successful and free,” Layla says. “No one has ever died. No one was brought to the hospital.”
But while Layla tries to paint it as low-risk, multiple qualified doctors told me that late, at-home abortions can be deeply traumatic and high risk.
“Dr Jane” also includes a package of injections in her “abortion kit” – these are sometimes used to prevent bleeding, but this form of medication can be dangerous for home use, particularly for women with high blood pressure.
A leading gynaecologist campaigning to change the abortion law, Dr Jonathan Lord, says the trauma goes beyond just the physical process, “which obviously is very traumatic”.
“The trauma is why are they doing this in the first place? To be in a situation where they’re trying get pills illegally at six months pregnant, something calamitous must have happened to their life.”
Layla is vocal when she tells me her reasons for selling the pills.
“The world needs to know that a woman’s body belongs to her and not the government,” she says.
When I tell her about the rising number of women facing trial in the UK as a result of procuring abortion pills (both from the NHS and online), she tells me she knows what she does is illegal: “But that’s not the whole story.”
Abortion at any stage is illegal in the Philippines – anyone who performs one faces six years in prison under the country’s penal code, while women who undergo the procedure face between two and six years in jail.
She started selling pills after using them herself. She already had children and was struggling financially telling me: “Our life is hard”.
Layla was 18 weeks pregnant when she finally bought her own abortion pills, because she needed time to save the money.
The woman she bought them from then offered her the chance to resell them. She now gets paid $30 (£24) for every woman she “assists”. In the last two weeks, she says she has sold pills to 14 people around the world – although none in the UK.
Layla never handles the pills herself. “There’s my… you could call her my boss. I send orders to her, and she sends those orders to the shipper.”
She says she is one of seven women working under her “boss”.
Adverts for abortion pills can be found on social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok and Telegram, but they are particularly easy to locate on the Meta platforms. It takes just a few keywords to throw up several groups and posts from sellers.
On Instagram, sellers post infographics about abortion and encourage people to private message them, or link to Telegram chats posting pictures and prices of pills. One post details how to avoid detection, with advice including making a new email address to order pills and turning off location tracking.
These sellers are “unscrupulous opportunists”, says Louise McCudden, a spokesperson for charity MSI.
McCudden believes companies, like Meta, should take responsibility for allowing the trade to continue on their platforms.
“When global social media companies refuse to properly regulate their billion-dollar platforms, it leaves vulnerable women at the mercy of scammers, crooks, and frauds,” she adds.
“Ironically, it is often fear of prosecution which causes women in vulnerable circumstances to feel they must rely on unregulated suppliers rather than accessing care within the NHS.”
Read more: What are the UK’s abortion laws and punishments for breaking them?
Venny Ala-Siurua is the executive director of Women on Web (WoW) – a non-profit online abortion service that sends abortion medication worldwide, legally providing pills to women up to 12 weeks.
WoW said it used to receive five requests every day from women in the UK, but this rapidly dropped to almost zero when the NHS introduced Pills by Post.
But Venny says “these [illegal] sellers operate very openly”.
WoW experiences a different problem and struggles with the Facebook algorithm not being able to distinguish between their content and that of these illegal sellers.
Venny herself has been permanently banned from Facebook and the site often takes down WoW’s own abortion-focused content for violating the company’s “community rules”.
“We have a team almost full-time trying to negotiate with Meta to get our content back up,” she says.
When asked about this, and Sky News’s findings, Meta says: “We want our platforms to be a place where people can access reliable information about health services such as abortion, advertisers can promote health services, and everyone can discuss and debate public policies in this space.
“Content about reproductive health must follow our rules, including those on pharmaceutical drugs and misinformation.”
Meta said it had removed violating content brought to its attention.
Telegram and TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
An amendment by Labour MP Diana Johnson to the Criminal Justice Bill would have stopped anyone facing prosecution for ending their own pregnancy in England and Wales.
However, in the wake of the general election announcement, discussions on the bill have been shelved following an early dissolution of Parliament.
Catherine Robinson, from Right to Life UK, said Sky News’s findings of the availability of abortion pills on social media were “extremely disturbing”.
And there is little to stop these online sellers, who paint their dangerous trade as almost heroic.
In reality, it is their failure to acknowledge the hazards of facilitating late-term abortions that is putting the lives of the very women they claim to help at risk.
*Names have been changed.
“We’ve got two,” explains Emer Szczygiel, emergency department head of nursing at King George Hospital, as she walks inside a pastel coloured room.
“If I had my time back again, we would probably have four, five, or six because these have helped us so much in the department with the really difficult patients.”
On one wall, there’s floral wallpaper. It is scored through with a graffiti scrawl. The words must have been scratched out with fingernails.
There are no other implements in here.
Patients being held in this secure room would have been searched to make sure they are not carrying anything they can use to harm themselves – or others.
Emer Szczygiel wishes the hospital had more of the ‘ligature light’ mental health rooms
There is a plastic bed secured to the wall. No bedding though, as this room is “ligature light”, meaning nothing in here could be used for self harm.
On the ceiling, there is CCTV that feeds into a control room on another part of the Ilford hospital’s sprawling grounds.
“So this is one of two rooms that when we were undergoing our works, we recognised, about three years ago, mental health was causing us more of an issue, so we’ve had two rooms purpose built,” Emer says.
“They’re as compliant as we can get them with a mental health room – they’re ligature light, as opposed to ligature free. They’re under 24-hour CCTV surveillance.”
The rooms have a CCTV camera in the ceiling that feeds through to the main control room
There are two doors, both heavily reinforced. One can be used by staff to make an emergency escape if they are under any threat.
What is unusual about these rooms is that they are built right inside a busy accident and emergency department.
The doors are just feet away from a nurse’s station, where medical staff are trying to deal with acute ED (emergency department) attendances.
The number of mental health patients in a crisis attending A&E has reached crisis levels.
Some will be experiencing psychotic episodes and are potentially violent, presenting a threat to themselves, other patients, clinical staff and security teams deployed to de-escalate the situation.
The team were already dealing with five mental health cases when Sky News visited
Like physically-ill patients, they require the most urgent care but are now facing some of the longest waits on record.
On a fairly quiet Wednesday morning, the ED team is already managing five mental health patients.
One, a diminutive South Asian woman, is screaming hysterically.
She is clearly very agitated and becoming more distressed by the minute. Despite her size, she is surrounded by at least five security guards.
She has been here for 12 hours and wants to leave, but can’t as she’s being held under the Mental Capacity Act.
Her frustration boils over as she pushes against the chests of the security guards who encircle her.
“We see about 150 to 200 patients a day through this emergency department, but we’re getting on average about 15 to 20 mental health presentations to the department,” Emer explains.
“Some of these patients can be really difficult to manage and really complex.”
Emer Szczygiel says the department gets about 15 to 20 mental health presentations a day
“If a patient’s in crisis and wants to harm themselves, there’s lots of things in this area that you can harm yourself with,” the nurse adds.
“It’s trying to balance that risk and make sure every emergency department in the country is deemed a place of safety. But there is a lot of risk that comes with emergency departments, because they’re not purposeful for mental health patients.”
In a small side room, Ajay Kumar and his wife are waiting patiently by their son’s bedside.
He’s experienced psychotic episodes since starting university in 2018 and his father says he can become unpredictable and violent.
Ajay and his wife were watching over their son, who’s been having psychotic episodes
Ajay says his son “is under a section three order – that means six months in hospital”.
“They sectioned him,” he tells us.
“He should be secure now, he shouldn’t go out in public. Last night he ran away [from hospital] and walked all the way home. It took him four and a half hours to come home.
“I mean, he got three and a half hours away. Even though he’s totally mental, he still finds his way home and he was so tired and the police were looking for him.”
Mr Kumar said his son ran away from hospital and walked for hours to get home
Now they are all back in hospital and could be waiting “for days”, Ajay says.
“I don’t know how many. They’re not telling us anything.”
Matthew Trainer, chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, is at pains to stress nobody is blaming the patients.
“We’ve seen, particularly over the last few years, a real increase in the number of people in mental health crisis coming into A&E for support,” he says.
“And I don’t know if this is because of the pandemic or wider economic pressures, but what we’re seeing every day is more and more people coming here as their first port of call.”
‘More and more’ people in mental health crisis are showing up at A&E, says Mr Trainer
The hospital boss adds: “If you get someone who’s really distressed, someone who is perhaps experiencing psychosis etc, I’m seeing increasing numbers of complaints from other patients and their families about the environment they’ve had to wait in.
“And they’re not blaming the mental health patients for being here.
“But what they’re saying is being in a really busy accident & emergency with ambulances, with somebody highly distressed, and you’re sat there with an elderly relative or a sick child or whatever – it’s hard for everyone.
“There’s no blame in this. It’s something we’ve got to work together to try to fix.”
New Freedom of Information data gathered by the Royal College of Nursing shows that over the last five years, more than 1.3 million people in a mental health crisis presented to A&E departments.
That’s expected to be a significant underestimate however, as only around a quarter of English trusts handed over data.
For these patients, waits of 12 hours or more for a mental health bed have increased by more than 380%.
Over the last decade, the number of overnight beds in mental health units declined by almost 3,700. That’s around 17%.
The Department for Health and Social Care told Sky News: “We know people with mental health issues are not always getting the support or care they deserve and incidents like this are unacceptable.
“We are transforming mental health services – including investing £26m to support people in mental health crisis, hiring more staff, delivering more talking therapies, and getting waiting lists down through our Plan for Change.”
Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national mental health director, also told Sky News: “While we know there is much more to do to deal with record demand including on waits, if a patient is deemed to need support in A&E, almost all emergency departments now have a psychiatric liaison team available 24/7 so people can get specialist mental health support alongside physical treatment.
“The NHS is working with local authorities to ensure that mental health patients are given support to leave hospital as soon as they are ready, so that space can be freed up across hospitals including A&Es.”
Patients in a mental health crisis and attending hospital are stuck between two failing systems.
A shortage of specialist beds means they are left untreated in a hospital not designed to help them.
And they are failed by a social care network overwhelmed by demand and unable to provide the early intervention care needed.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
A body has been found in the search for a missing Scottish man who disappeared while on a stag do in Portugal.
Greg Monks, 38, was last seen in Albufeira during the early hours of Wednesday, 28 May, while enjoying the first night of a five-day stay.
A major search was launched for the Cambuslang man, with his parents and girlfriend flying out to Portugal to also provide assistance.
Mr Monks and his partner. Pic: Family handout
His sisters, Jillian and Carlyn, previously spoke to Sky News about the family’s devastation at his disappearance.
Speaking to The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee before the police’s announcement, they described their brother as a “big part of our family”.
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Mr Monks’ sisters spoke to The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee
Local police confirmed on Wednesday that a body had been found in the Cerro de Aguia area, where Mr Monks was believed to have been last seen.
A statement by Portuguese police said the body was located on a vacant and uneven lot.
The force added: “After the competent judicial inspection has been carried out, the body will be removed to the area’s legal medicine office for an autopsy to be performed.”
Read more from Sky News:
Man jailed for murdering wife after remains found under stairs
Two men charged with murder after boy, 4, died in crash
Pic: Family handout
Mr Monks was earlier described by his sisters as a “real family man”.
When his family arrived in Albufeira, police told them they had spotted Mr Monks twice on CCTV footage walking around the residential area.
The area where he was last seen – more than an hour’s walk from the Albufeira Strip – had a lot of rough terrain, including rocky outcrops and cliffs.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was supporting Mr Monks’ family and was “in contact with the local authorities”.
UK
Truck driver Richard Satchwell jailed for murdering wife Tina after her remains were found under stairs
A truck driver found guilty of murdering his wife, whose remains were found under the stairs at their home in Ireland, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Richard Satchwell, originally from Leicester, had denied the murder of Tina Satchwell on a date between 19 March and 20 March 2017.
Her skeletal remains were discovered at the Co Cork property in October 2023, six years after her husband reported her missing.
During his five-week trial, jurors heard from more than 50 witnesses, including police officers involved in the investigation.
Police had discovered Mrs Satchwell’s remains buried under the stairs in the living room of their home. Her badly decomposed body was wrapped in a soiled sheet and covered with black plastic.
She was wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown, with the belt of the gown wrapped around her.
A state pathologist said she could not establish the exact cause of death because of how decomposed the body was.
During police interviews, Satchwell, 58, said that on the morning of 20 March 2017 he found his wife standing at the bottom of the stairs with a chisel in her hand, scraping off the plasterboard, and claimed she came at him with the object and he fell back on to the floor.
He said Mrs Satchwell tried to stab him multiple times with the chisel and he grabbed her clothing and restrained her by putting the belt of the dressing gown against her neck.
Satchwell said that in a very short period of time she went limp and fell into his arms.
He said he put her body on the sofa in the living room, before moving her to the chest freezer and then burying her under the stairs.
Relatives of Mrs Satchwell wept as the guilty verdict was returned on Friday 30 May.
Satchwell did not react as the unanimous verdict was read to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Following the sentencing, the family of Mrs Satchwell described her as a kind and gentle woman who loved animals.
Tina’s cousin, Sarah Howard, said that Mrs Satchwell was murdered “by someone who claimed to love her”.
“The emotional toll of her loss is something I will carry with me always,” she said.
Tina Satchwell. Pic: Family Handout/PA
Her half-sister Lorraine Howard said the way Mrs Satchwell was buried in plastic in her own home “sends shivers down my spine every time I think about it”.
“I will never be able to forgive Richard Satchwell for what he has done.”
Satchwell’s barrister Brendan Grehan SC told the court that Satchwell intends to appeal, and that he “never intended to kill Tina”.
Mr Grehan also said that Satchwell said “despite anything he said in the trial, Tina was a lovely person”.
Read more from Sky News:
British man goes missing on stag do
Two men charged with murder after boy dies in crash
The court was told the couple married in the UK on Tina’s 20th birthday, and later settled in Co Cork, first in Fermoy before moving to Youghal in 2016.
The trial heard that on 24 March 2017, Satchwell went to Irish police and claimed his wife had left their Youghal home four days ago because their relationship had deteriorated.
Satchwell had also claimed Mrs Satchwell had taken €26,000 euros in cash from savings they kept in the attic, which the court later heard they did not have the capacity to save.
He formally reported his wife missing in May 2017 and claimed to investigators that his wife was sometimes violent towards him.
In the following years, he made over a dozen media appearances in which he spoke extensively about the morning he claimed Mrs Satchwell left the house and never returned.
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