Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Olivia Wright investigates the most restrictive abortion law in Europe as part of our #TalkingDoesMore campaign.
If you could imagine for one minute, you were born in Northern Ireland and you found yourself pregnant. Unwilling or unable to care for another human being for any reason.
Perhaps you were raped, perhaps your child won’t survive the pregnancy. If you were a Northern Irish woman, you would be denied the legal right to your body.
You would effectively have to ask your own nation to provide you with a service which would see you imprisoned if you seek it in your own country.
Northern Ireland has the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, and is the only part of the UK that does not allow abortion except in the narrowest of circumstances – and not including in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality.
The United Nations ruled in 2016 that restrictive abortion laws are a grave violation of human rights and is one of the most ‘damaging ways of instrumentalising women’s bodies.’
The Northern Irish government have ignored this ruling and continues to refuse to grant their citizens safe reproductive services.
The UK government also continues to ignore its responsibility to ensure that the laws in all its territories comply with international human rights laws.
In June, the UK government announced they intend to fund abortions for Northern Irish women in England after a campaign by Labour MP, Stella Creasy.
But does this announcement make any difference?
Like in England prior to the 1967 Abortion Act, there is a distinct inequality in abortion. Only the more affluent women can travel.
For the young, disabled and those unable afford travel, they are resorting to buying illegal, but World Health Organisation verified, pills online.
The procurement of abortion outside an NHS facility is illegal everywhere in the UK under the 1967 Act, meaning women are accessing abortion medication and risking prison.
In 2016, a 21-year-old woman was handed a three-month suspended sentence after her flat mates reported her to the police for taking the abortion pill. The case demonstrates not only the willingness prosecute women for abortion offences, but the readiness of friends to call the police.
A report published by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service last year found that over 5,000 women requested the abortion pill online.
The numbers of women travelling for a termination annually has also decreased from about 1,000 to around 800.
Couple that with the 16 abortions performed in Northern Ireland in 2016, it’s likely that the abortion rate isn’t decreasing, but women are accessing these pills online and having abortions without medical advice or assistance.
Mara Clarke, director of The Abortion Support Network, a charity which provides financial assistance and accommodation to women travelling from Northern Ireland, as well as information on reputable abortion pill providers, doesn’t think Westminster has done enough.
“The UK government saying they will fund abortions in England is just another plaster. You shouldn’t have to get on a plane to get medical care.
“The government need to realise that they aren’t stopping abortion. They are stopping abortion for poor people.
“They are then arresting people for taking illegal but safe abortion pills, so what they are saying is, ‘drink bleach.’
“And women are. A woman rang me and said, ‘I’m trying to figure out how to crash my car to have a miscarriage but not die.’”
Jill McManus, a medical student at Queen’s University Belfast and activist Alliance for Choice, says women are in an impossible situation; they either risk criminalisation for buying abortion pills, or spend their savings on travelling to England.
“There is a real stigma around even discussing abortion publicly.
“Many women are forced into silence because they feel they’re going to be judged if they speak about it, when it’s such a common healthcare procedure.
“At Alliance for Choice, we run the #TrustWomen campaign, which is all about reframing the discussion around abortion to make it a healthcare and human rights issue.
“We campaign simply for safe, free and legal abortions.”
But, what makes Northern Ireland ‘different’ from the rest of the UK?
Northern Ireland is regarded as the most religious part of the UK. The 2011 Census reported 82 percent of residents described themselves as Christian, compared with England’s 59 percent.
Dr Claire Pierson, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Liverpool, but originally from Belfast, has called abortion ‘the one issue which unites religion in Northern Ireland.’
“Members of the DUP are openly members of the Evangelical Protestant churches so their political debate and rhetoric is guided by religious belief.
“The Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party openly calls itself a pro-life party and they use faith based approaches to politics.
“There is influence from the church and it does guide politicians on moral politics.”
In 2016, the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey presented the public with scenarios relating to abortion and they were asked if they thought abortion should be legal according to the situation.
83 percent believed abortion should be legal in cases where a serious health condition means the woman will die if she continues the pregnancy. While 78 percent believed it should be legal in cases of rape and incest.
Yet, proposals to legalise abortion in cases of foetal abnormality, and in cases of rape and incest were defeated by 59-40 and 64-30 respectively in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.
The refusal of Northern Irish politicians to support abortions in some of the most desperate situations makes it hard to see how Northern Ireland is going to see any real change.
But, the DUP, through their ‘money-deal’ with the Conservative government have inadvertently made this a bigger problem.
This will remain an issue for the UK and Northern Irish governments.
In the next and final feature in our #TalkingDoesMore series, Olivia Wright talks to the unheard voices of abortion: The Men.
We want to hear from you. Please share your thoughts on abortion and leave you own stories in the comments below or on Twitter using the #TalkingDoesMore hashtag. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
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