Northern Irish Women Cannot Stay Home If They Need An Abortion
Across the UK, all efforts are being made during the coronavirus crisis to ensure that vital treatment can be accessed by those who need it most.
There is one big exception here: Northern Irish women and pregnant people who cannot easily access mifepristone with misoprostol, despite both items being on the World Health Organisation’s list of essential medicines.
Current rules in Northern Ireland dictate that the first abortion pill is to be taken in a health and social care premises, but these premises are yet to be up and running in the country. New regulations brought abortion legislation in Northern Ireland in line with England and Wales on 31 March, but the roll-out has been impacted by current turmoil. What this means in practice is that Northern Irish women still have to travel to England to access abortion services, as they have done for decades.
A journey that was already difficult and gruelling has become next to impossible in the middle of a global pandemic. With no direct flights operating out of Belfast Airport, the only option is to take a multitude of trains, buses and ferries to arrive at Liverpool — one of only two publicly-funded clinics currently accessible — over eight to 10 hours later.
Once there, they will be able to take the first of five abortion pills under the guidance of a healthcare professional, before making the same journey back home, with next to nowhere open to rest or even eat in between.
Anyone following the Northern Ireland Office’s social media accounts would see various messages, including, “We all must do it to get through it — stay at home” and “Until abortion services are available in Northern Ireland, women and pregnant people can continue to receive advice on abortion services free of charge.”
April was meant to be a month of celebration for pro-choice activists, who had spent decades campaigning for abortion rights in Northern Ireland.
What is left unsaid in the second message is that the advice...
