“We’ve heard of more than one woman pregnant as a result of rape told by these agencies that ‘if you have the abortion you’re worse than the man that raped you and your actions will make you a murderer’. It’s insane.”

Mara Clarke, director of ASN, says the organization hears stories from Irish women who were initially unaware of the group’s existence and who had tried to terminate their pregnancies. “We are told, ‘I’ve been Googling ways to self-abort,’” Clarke says. “We had a woman who went out and bought heroin; she’s not a drug user,…

Mara Clarke, from the Abortion Support Network, said that even if the amendments proposed are passed at a future date, they don’t go far enough. “This is a very small percentage of the people who need abortions, which means women are still going to be faced with the fact that those who have £400 to…

I can’t tell you just how ashamed that makes me to live in Northern Ireland. I’m not going to get into the specifics of why free, safe and legal abortion is a basic requirement of any modernised and democratic nation. Women are already telling you in their thousands on this island why it is needed.

“Fewer than 1.4% of the abortions in England, Scotland and Wales happen at over 20 weeks. With our clients, it’s 8%, because they spend so long trying to raise the money.”

Director of UK-based support charity tells of abuse and threats over her work helping to fund terminations for Irish women

As part of a special series on The Pat Kenny Show, UK-based Mara Clarke explains why she believes it’s morally right to help women access safe, legal abortions in clinics across England

“My mum, her cousin, my granny – they’ve gone for 30 or 40 years and never told anyone,” Anna says. “If I’d known about my mum’s experience, maybe I could have told her, and maybe it wouldn’t have been such an ordeal. To have the moral support would have been great. But none of us…