News

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

LONDON, October 20, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) – Dr. Edward Erin, 44, a married father of two who worked at St. Mary's Hospital in West London, has been found guilty of procuring and administering poison to induce an abortion in his pregnant mistress.

Erin tried to pressure his hospital secretary, Bella Prowse, 33, into having an abortion when she told him she was carrying his child.

When she refused, saying she regretted an abortion she had six years earlier and wanted to keep the child, he attempted to give her the abortifacient drugs.

Prowse told the Old Bailey court that she suspected Erin was giving her abortion inducing drugs when she found a yellow powder in the bottom of a cup she was drinking from and, suspecting the drink had been spiked, took it to police.

The jury found Erin guilty of two charges of attempting to administer poison by trying to give Prowse drugs known to cause miscarriages in pregnant women.

Erin was tried under a section of the 1961 Offences Against the Person Act, which has seldom been used since abortion became legal in 1967. The statute was previously used to prosecute those carrying out illegal abortions.

Detective Chief Inspector Mickey Gallagher told the Times, “Edward Erin is a consultant physician, pharmacologist and honorary senior lecturer. He has been a medical professional for over 20 years, yet having failed to persuade his girlfriend, Bella Prowse, to have an abortion, he has abused his profession and position of trust, used his medical knowledge to try and bring on a miscarriage.”

“Thankfully, Erin failed in his attempts and Bella gave birth to a healthy child,” Gallagher said.

See related LSN articles:

US Air Force Serviceman Convicted For Causing Wife's Miscarriage
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09050506.html

Bobby Cutts Jr. Charged with Two Murders – Girlfriend and Unborn Child
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07062501.html