The fabulous Laurie Penny included ASN in her Vice Magazine piece “The Holy War on Irish Wombs”.

This month saw ASN feature on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Victoria Derbyshire Show (no longer available online) and BBC Panorama as part of a show called “The Great Abortion Divide”

“It’s not ‘ok’ that women living in Ireland have that decision taken away from them because they cannot afford to travel.  I believe we need to repeal the 8th amendment and respect women’s rights to choose.  Continuing to refer to women whose lives are at risk and all women who are are in crisis and…

“Wait, what?” I asked myself as I read about women forced to travel hundreds of miles after working extra shifts and selling things to raise funds for their abortions, having been pushed into later and more expensive gestations while they raised the money to pay the costs. Women were travelling. Hundreds of miles. To have…

“While we applaud any move that allows healthcare decisions to made by women and doctors as opposed to politicians, legislation on the X case will only impact a limited number of women. The vast majority of women who need abortions – women who’ve been raped; couples whose wanted pregnancies have catastrophic foetal anomalies; women and…

“Abortion Support Network issues grants to Irish women seeking terminations and provides confidential, non-judgemental support, information and even accommodation in volunteers’ homes. While this work practically helping people in need should be applauded, it shouldn’t be necessary. Let’s hope some good comes out of the tragedy of Savita Halappanavar’s death and Ireland’s outdated abortion laws…

“If Savita’s family hadn’t bravely made the decision to go public, would her senseless death have come to light? Have the lives of more women been sacrificed because a fetus was deemed more important? Even when it was known that the fetus would not survive? When, technically in Ireland an abortion is permitted if there…

“The vast majority of women who need abortions –- women who’ve been raped, couples whose wanted pregnancies have catastrophic foetal anomalies, women and couples who simply can’t afford a child, or, in most cases, another child –- will still have to travel and pay privately for abortions,” Mara Clarke said.

This figure is disputed – the most widely-cited figure is 4,000 but it could be much higher. One charity, the Abortion Support Network, gives needy women grants of between £20 and £700 pounds to travel to Britain from the Republic of Ireland, where Savita died, and from neighbouring Northern Ireland, which is a British province.…