“The provision of free access to abortion services for all UK citizens would be a small change that would make a real difference to women who may otherwise struggle to afford the cost of private treatment,” Ruairi Rowan, senior advocacy officer in Northern Ireland at the Family Planning Association charity, said.

“The numbers tell you who gave a Northern Irish address, not who was staying with a relative, at a hotel, or gave a fake address,” she said. “The number of people from Northern Ireland seeking our help went up by 14%, starting the day after prosecutions against people taking abortion pills began. Since 2010 we…

As Theresa May engages in government negotiations with DUP leader Arlene Foster, it’s unlikely the improvement of reproductive rights will be high on the agenda. Foster’s party are the drivers behind Northern Ireland’s excessively punitive abortion laws – and have nurtured a culture that allows the prosecution of women for accessing abortion pills. But instead…

It’s slightly surreal how the main thing that unifies those from Unionist and Republican backgrounds in Precious Life is their idea that forced pregnancy is the best thing for those dealing with an unwanted pregnancy.

“These numbers only tell part of the story,” Mara Clarke, who runs the Abortion Support Network, a UK-based charity which assists women from Ireland and Northern Ireland in accessing abortion, told BuzzFeed News. She said the the number of people contacting the charity for help, which can include funding to travel to England for an…

Mara Clarke, the founder of the Abortion Support Network, a charity that gives financial assistance to women from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to travel to England for treatment, said her organisation had seen a 24% increase in calls from women asking for help in the last year, as news of prosecutions created…

Abortion Support Network Press Release   13 June 2017   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Department of Health abortion statistics released as Tory/DUP alliance looms   Look beyond the 2016 DoH abortion statistics to the full story of those forced to travel from Ireland and the Isle of Man to England for abortions   The 2016 abortion…

But one girl in Ireland was sent to a mental hospital against her will after a doctor said she was at risk for suicide—and she still had to continue the pregnancy.

The DUP is a deeply socially conservative party, and has consistently blocked both the extension of equal marriage to Northern Ireland and the roll-out of the 1967 Abortion Act. While abortion is still criminalised throughout the UK under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, the 1967 Act allows for terminations to be legal, under…

I grew up on a council estate. I’m very proud of my background. But it also means that I’ve seen first-hand how the Eighth Amendment has impacted the most vulnerable in Irish society.