“You learn, ‘There but for the grace of God, a credit card or a friend able to loan you $500, go I,’” explains Mara Clarke of the Abortion Support Network. Clarke is a long-time abortion advocate who, as part of the National Network for Abortion Funds, provided accommodation for women travelling to New York City…

And if Carphone Warehouse is willing to slap ‘pro-choice’ on its advertisements, that is an incredible sign of progress. Now, at the same time, the lefty in me, is like ‘Come on, really. So, you’re gonna put pro-choice in your ads, you’re gonna get a metric fuckton of free press because of the ‘controversy’, y’know,…

“Those with funds can travel to England for a safe, legal abortion,” says Mara Clarke. “Those without money can continue a pregnancy they don’t want or, if they are under 10 weeks pregnant, risk criminal prosecution by ordering safe but illegal early medical abortion pills online. “We’ve had clients ration food, sell Christmas presents, risk…

Goretti Horgan of Alliance for Choice, said: “Mothers of pregnant teenage daughters in Northern Ireland will be keenly aware that, as Mr Justice Horner noted in his judgement last November, the current situation on abortion in Northern Ireland ‘smacks of one law for the rich and another for the poor’. Those unable to get the money together…

They received charitable assistance from the Abortion Support Network in the sum of £400 without which they could not have afforded the treatment. A and B have since argued in the high court and court of appeal that the cost of the treatment should have been free for them as UK citizens, and that by…

An appeal opens on Wednesday in the Supreme Court in London against a decision preventing women from Northern Ireland having access to free abortions under the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain. The case is being taken by a 19-year-old woman and her mother from Northern Ireland challenging the current law that bars women from…

Sweeping things under the carpet is a national sport in Ireland, but at last, women’s personal stories are informing a movement in a way that was impossible in the past because of social taboos. We have a torrid history of oppressing women, thanks to the power the Catholic church once wielded in collusion with the…

As abortion laws and women’s rights spark protests across Europe, a new poll has shown that 72% of people in Northern Ireland would favour a change in laws to allow for abortions in cases of rape and incest. We speak to founder of the Abortion Support Network, Mara Clarke.

The Irish Sea is the body of water which stands between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. For many, this sea is a channel to be crossed to go on holiday or to visit family. But, for the hundreds of thousands of women who have crossed this sea to get an abortion, this stretch…

In April, a 21-year-old woman from Northern Ireland was given a three-month jail sentence for committing a crime considered heinous in her country. It was a relatively light sentence—under the law, she could have been condemned to life in prison. Strangely, the punishment was handed down for an action considered legal throughout the rest of…