29 June 2017
Women from Northern Ireland will be able to get free abortions in England, the government has said.

More than 50 MPs from the major parties had backed a Labour-led call for the women to have access to NHS abortions in England. They currently have to pay.

The BBC’s political editor said ministers made the concession because it appeared some Tory MPs might back the call, risking a possible defeat.

Continued at link: www.bbc.com

Face the 50: The X-ile Project’s online gallery of women who shared experiences of abortion has grown to 50 photos

irishtimes, May 12, 2017, by Rosita Boland

On December 10th, 2015, 11 portraits of women were posted online to a new website. Nothing unusual or remarkable about that entirely routine event. Countless new websites appear every day around the world. But this one went on to be reported by news organisations in the US, Australia, Britain, Poland, Italy, India, Belgium, Germany and France. It was picked up by outlets as diverse as The New York Times, Buzzfeed, The Guardian, The Pool, Mashable, Le Figaro and The Telegraph.

These photographs were of women who, while living in Ireland, had all shared the same experience; of having had an abortion. The gallery of their portraits was the first to go online in the X-ile Project. There were more than 10,000 hits in the first few hours when it went online originally. On May 12th, the photographs of 17 new participants in the project will be added to the ever-growing gallery, bringing the number to 50.

Continued at source: Irish Times: www.irishtimes.com

irish legal news, May 11, 2017

A leaked draft of Labour’s general election manifesto includes a commitment to extending abortion rights to women in Northern Ireland.

Details from the draft document, which is set to be approved by Labour’s governing executive today, were published by The Telegraph last night.

A full PDF of the draft text has been published by BBC News.

Continued at source: Irish Legal: www.irishlegal.com

theguardian.com, 26 April 2017 by Grainne Maguire

The story was that abortion could be tolerated in only the most limited of circumstances. Then 99 members of the public were asked what they thought.

In 1916, when revolutionaries were putting the final touches to the proclamation of independence, the manifesto of the Irish state, there was one phrase that kept holding everything up: should it be addressed to the men of Ireland as Pádraig Pearse insisted, or the men and women, as James Connelly argued? Connelly won, but whose revolution it actually was is still up for debate 101 years later.

Last weekend, a national assembly set up by the taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to debate access to abortion in Ireland announced its results.

Continued at source: www.theguardian.com

buzzfeed.com, Mar. 8, 2017 by Laura Silver

“I treated a girl who was so desperate, she performed her own abortion with a coat hanger,” a retired nurse who attended the protest told BuzzFeed News.

DUBLIN – Thousands of people marched through Ireland’s capital on Wednesday evening to demand the government repeals its highly restrictive abortion laws.
The “March4Repeal” was the culmination of a series of actions planned for International Women’s Day to protest against the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, which states that abortion is prohibited except for when a pregnant woman’s life is seen to be at immediate risk.
Continued at source: www.buzzfeed.com

irishtimes.com, March 4, 2017  by 
Ronan McGreevy

Women directly affected by Irish abortion laws speak to Citizens’ Assembly

Six women who were directly affected by the State’s abortion laws have given personal testimony to the Citizens’ Assembly examining the Eighth Amendment.
The pre-recorded audio interviews were played to the 99 members of the assembly on Saturday afternoon with one going back almost 50 years.
Read full article: www.irishtimes.com

iNews.co.uk, February 3rd 2017 by Katie Grant
Every year thousands of Irish women travel to England for an abortion. In 2015 a total of 3,451 women and girls from the Republic of Ireland travelled to England to have an abortion performed, according to Department of Health figures. A further 833 came from Northern Ireland and 105 from the Isle of Man. As pressure mounts on the Irish government to hold a referendum to repeal the country’s restrictive abortion laws, i speaks to women who have made the journey to England to end a pregnancy. Their accounts have been edited slightly for clarity and length.

Read full article: inews.co.uk

Telegraph.co.uk, 1 September 2016 by Telegraph Reporters

A confidential telephone helpline for women who have used abortion pills bought online is launching today.

Bpas is helping women who have no choice but to buy abortion pills on the internet

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has set up the free service to provide aftercare for women living in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. Access to abortion services is severely restricted in these regions and thousands of women are forced to travel to England each year to undergo terminations. Those who are unable to do so, often for financial reasons, resort to ordering illegal abortion medication on the internet for as little as £50.

In England, Scotland and Wales, women can access abortions – either via pills or a surgical procedure – through NHS services and clinics.

Read full article: www.telegraph.co.uk

new york times, August 23, 2016 by Liam Stack

A march for changes in abortion law in Dublin in 2012. Credit Peter Muhly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Two Irish women who live-tweeted a trip to England so that one of them could get an abortion set off a debate over the weekend, highlighting the restrictions placed on the procedure in their home country and renewing pressure on the government to respond to calls for change.
Abortion is banned in Ireland unless a woman faces an immediate risk of death, a high bar that leads thousands to leave the country each year to have the procedure. The woman who live-tweeted her abortion journey from the account @TwoWomenTravel was one of them.
Accompanied by a close friend, she awoke before dawn on Saturday and made her way to Dublin Airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight to Manchester, England.

Read full article: www.nytimes.com

awid.org (The Association for Women’s Rights in Development), 18 May 2016

2015 DoH report shows small change in numbers of women travelling but hide real picture of harm done by Ireland and Isle of Man’s abortion laws.
The 2015 abortion statistics published by the Department of Health today show minimal differences in the numbers of women travelling to access a safe, legal abortion in England, reporting a slight decrease in the number of women from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and a more substantial increase in the number travelling from the Isle of Man.

However, a steep increase in calls from these countries to Abortion Support Network (ASN), which provides financial assistance, practical information and accommodation to women forced to travel to England to access an abortion, reveals the real story.
In 2015, Abortion Support Network received calls and emails from 648 women, couples and families seeking help in accessing a safe and legal abortion in England. ASN has heard from an additional 257 in the first four months of 2016 (Jan-April) which includes a slight increase in contacts from people in Northern Ireland, likely related to the recent conviction of a young woman for taking safe but illegal early medical abortion pills.
Abortion Support Network Director Mara Clarke said:

Abortion Support Network is an almost entirely volunteer-run charity helping women forced to travel to England to access abortion. We speak to women directly and hear first-hand of the difficulties and distress they are forced to endure because they cannot access a safe legal abortion in their own country.

These Department of Health abortion statistics only tell us how many women gave an Irish, Northern Irish or Isle of Man address at a UK family planning clinic; ASN knows these numbers only tell part of the story.
These numbers do not capture the women who cannot travel – women who need but cannot obtain passports or visas needed to travel, women who cannot escape from violent partners and women who do not have the £400 to £2,000 it costs to travel to England and pay privately for an abortion and who don’t know that ASN exists and can help them.

They do not include the women who come to England and give the address of a local friend or family member, the women who travel to other countries to access abortions, or the hundreds – if not thousands – of women who are obtaining early medical abortion pills online from Women Help and Women on Web, the two reputable groups providing these medications, or the hundreds more taken in by scam websites who steal women’s money.
Read full article: www.awid.org