Discussing abortion as a reality of life that many different people have experience of helps to normalise it, removing the shroud of secrecy and shame. Clarke told WVoN, “The easiest thing people can do, is simply to talk about abortion. “One in three women will have an abortion, but it’s this giant secret that very…

If Mumsnet might not seem like the most obvious organisation to rally for abortion charities, then it’s worth looking to a new report on abortion released by the Department of Health earlier this week – in particular to the statistic indicating that, in England and Wales last year, more than half of women (54%) who…

“This week, we heard from our 2000th person seeking our mix of confidential, practical advice, financial support and accommodation,” the organisation revealed as they published their 2014 annual report.

She says it doesn’t matter that her website is essentially helping them commit a crime, because what they’re doing shouldn’t even be illegal in the first place: “We’re of the opinion that women doing this are always acting within their human rights, and a government that would try to prosecute women is violating those human…

Women DIE without access to safe abortion. They die. But that’s fine, right? She’s just a woman, an incubator for a potential person, who (fingers crossed) will be a boy and not some troublesome mess of womany-ness that might insist on getting herself pregnant.

This Amnesty report will certainly provide them with an excellent starting point. I may be misjudging it but it does feel as if something is changing in this bleak debate and we may finally face up maturely to this problem.

“We are very transparent about what it is that we do – and what it is that we do is that we keep women from drinking bleach. The work we do is absolutely saving lives and we think it is really wonderful that the users of Mumsnet recognise that choosing if … or when to have…

One thin sea stands between possibility and life for women, and helplessness and fear; between being approximately a person in the eyes of the law, and being a container. The abuse of Irish women must go on no longer.

“We’ve heard time and time again from women forced by the despair induced by a combination of poverty and draconian abortion laws who have taken matters into their own hands – by ingesting chemicals, by overdosing on medications, by drinking excessively, by literally throwing themselves down stairs to try and induce miscarriage.”

The Abortion Support Network, a charity that provides financial assistance to women forced to travel to access abortion, said it had witnessed a “steep increase in calls” from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Network director Mara Clarke said that, last year, the network received 552 calls from women seeking support accessing abortion in…