A reproductive rights group in the country is offering to help and support women who have found themselves suddenly without a crucial flight to the Britain.

I don’t know quite how a modern abortion law would go – perhaps it would start by ditching the 1861 act, having no time limit and allowing abortion at a woman’s request – but I know that the threat of jail shouldn’t be part of it.

But the ASN director Mara Clarke said: “Even if the government will be covering the procedure and all other associated costs, this is still only a plaster to the disease that is the abortion law in Northern Ireland. “While this will ease the financial burden for those in NI who need abortions, there will always…

Abortion was never really an option in my estate. Most people didn’t have a passport, let alone the money to go abroad. This fabled ‘boat to England’ to take care of an unwanted pregnancy can cost up to 2000 euros – far beyond the reach of most of my neighbours.

“It’s great that there are people who can access this kind of treatment online,” Clarke said. “But they shouldn’t have to. They should be able to go to their local clinic and get it there. We shouldn’t be saying to people, you either have to take illegal pills from the internet or have a tonne…

“But I think this research really shows that in 2017 self-sourced abortion is a network of people helping and supporting each other through what’s really a safe and effective process in the comfort of their own homes, and I think is a huge step forward in public health.”

‘Both of these women were basically told that they weren’t suicidal enough,’ Mara Clarke, the founder of the Abortion Support Network charity, told The Times. ‘One woman was refused her visa to travel for an abortion and attempted suicide for the third time,’ she said.

These days I am still ‘pro-life’- I am pro women’s lives.

Two women who had attempted suicide more than once were turned down for abortions in Ireland, a support group has said. Both women were immigrants who needed visas if they were going to travel to the UK for a legal termination. One of the pregnancies had been diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality.

Scotland is considering the offer of free abortions to women who travel from Northern Ireland, where they risk life imprisonment if they have an illegal termination.