Procuring Drugs, etc. with Intent to Cause Abortion

Procuring Drugs, etc. with Intent to Cause Abortion 

Under section 47 of the Offences against the Person Ordinance (Cap. 212): 

Any person who unlawfully supplies or procures any poison or other noxious thing or any instrument or thing whatsoever, knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she is or is not with child, shall be guilty of an offence triable upon indictment, and shall be liable to imprisonment for 3 years. 

Section 47 is directed at persons who supply or procure the means of abortion. Any person who, knowing that a poison, noxious thing or instrument is to be used for an unlawful abortion, nevertheless supplies or procures it, commits an offence, punishable by up to 3 years' imprisonment. The key to this offence is the person's knowledge: if he knows that the item is to be used for an unlawful purpose, then, whether or not the abortion is ultimately successful, his act of supplying or procuring it is in itself the offence.