The days of the siege are over: how Northern Ireland came to lead Britain on abortion
The family planning consultants in Shaftesbury Square remember the days of siege when anti-abortion protesters staked out the front and back entrances to their offices in central Belfast.
Some pickets splashed holy water on doors and defaced salt crosses on the sidewalk, while others threw pamphlets with images of babies and fetuses at the women entering or leaving the building, and sometimes following them.
Chants reached the third floor where counselors informed clients about options for an unwanted or difficult pregnancy. “Hey, hey FPA,” said the voices from the street, “how many children did you kill today?”
It was a chilling atmosphere, said Ruairi Rowan, director of advocacy and policy Informing choices Northern Ireland (ICNI), a sexual and reproductive health charity that has taken over the office from the former branch of the Family Planning Association. “People felt intimidated. Sometimes on the way in we would start a counseling session with what had happened outside.
Ten years later the scene changes. Today there are no protests in Shaftesbury Square and the only sound from the third floor is the hum of traffic. Northern Ireland’s abortion ban has given way to decriminalization and progressive jurisdiction.
“Abortion services are now available in all five hospitals in Northern Ireland, helping to meet the majority of demand locally,” the Department of Health said. Medical abortion is available in all circumstances, as set out in the 2020 regulations, and surgical abortion is available for up to 20 weeks. “Work is underway to ensure this service is extended to 24 weeks’ gestation as soon as possible,” the department added. “Women who need to access this service can continue to access free abortion care in Britain.”
Decriminalization means that Northern Ireland, once associated with draconian restrictions, now offers greater protection to women compared to England and Wales, where they can be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy after the 24-week limit.
“We now have one of the best laws in the world,” said Emma Campbell Alliance for Choice. “It doesn’t make sense that you wouldn’t just use that minimum gold standard to expand to the entire country.”
Many activists in Northern Ireland believe the region is leading the way – a contrast to 2017 when a mother was charged for helping her 15-year-old pregnant daughter obtain abortion pills online. “Because no one is threatened with prosecution, it makes it so much easier to help people,” Campbell said. “It really provides a great safety net for activists.”
It is a remarkable turnaround for a region once synonymous with the extreme social conservatism of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leaders, who branded homosexuality an ‘abomination’ and campaigned to ‘save Ulster from sodomy’. Britain legalized abortion up to 24 weeks in most circumstances in 1967, but Northern Ireland maintained a ban endorsed by Catholic and Protestant leaders.
Secularisation, legal challenges and high-profile cases, such as Sarah Ewart being forced to travel to England for a discharge after being told her baby could not survive, changed public opinion, but it was a vote at Westminster, not Stormont, that legalized abortion. 2019.
The rollout of the service has been slow and uneven and has been a victim of disputes between the Northern Ireland Office and the Department of Health, the Covid pandemic and the lack of political will and deadlock in Belfast. That changed in March 2022 when the British government overrode the Stormont executive and ordered the region’s health trusts to provide abortion services.
The Ministry of Health did not provide figures, but ICNI estimates that around 7,600 abortions have been performed since then. “There is a sense of relief and pride that women are no longer forced to travel to access healthcare they should have always had access to. It has taken away a lot of the stigma,” Rowan said.
Sporadic protests have been held outside clinics, but last September a law was introduced that would require a buffer zone came into effect, making it illegal for people to be “hindered, recorded, influenced or harassed, alarmed or alarmed” within certain areas.
“We still see protesters standing with graphic images, but it is welcome that we have legislation to address that,” Connie Egan, the Alliance Party’s spokesperson on violence against women and girls, said in a personal capacity.
Pro-choice campaigners are also pleased that anti-abortion charity Stanton Healthcare will no longer appear at the top of Google searches for people looking for information.
Some women still leave Northern Ireland for abortions, but the number of contacts is decreasing Abortion Support Network, a British charity, is down from 28 in 2021, eight in 2022 and six in 2023, says Annie Tidbury, ASN service manager. The calls do show continued uncertainty about the availability of local services, she said. “A lack of clear information can cause fear in people.”
There are other concerns. The number of refugees seeking help is said to have risen sharply. The pool of qualified, experienced medical staff is small, leaving services vulnerable to disruption and a potential postcode lottery for access. Conscientious objections within healthcare are relatively high.
Alyson Kilpatrick, Chief of Police Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the mentioned services were not implemented consistently and fully, leading to delays. “We recommend that the UK Government, in partnership with the Department of Health, ensure that sufficient long-term targeted funding is available and fully utilized to maintain consistent abortion services.”
Rowan said any delays and gaps in services were unfortunate but that Northern Ireland had set an example. “No woman should be sent to prison for an abortion.”