March 15, 2026
Lyndsey Telford, BBC News NI
A schoolgirl who was wrongly sent from Northern Ireland to England for a termination was traumatised by the ordeal, her mother has said.
She said the 18-year-old was forced to wait for a flight home after the procedure while bleeding and cramping.
The teenager was 18 weeks pregnant and could have been treated in Northern Ireland, but was sent to London due to confusion by the booking provider over the services available.
MPs missed a chance to remove the threat of prosecution from anyone helping families make decisions about their own lives. With the far right on the march, it’s time to defend our rights.
By Emma Campbell
June 28, 2025
Campaigners were celebrating last week as the UK parliament took the first step to defend reproductive rights. But, as an abortion activist working here in Belfast, I was frustrated at a lack of willingness to fix the problems with the amendment. Even if it becomes law, the work that I do every day helping people here in Northern Ireland would still see me facing criminal charges if I did it in England and Wales.
I’ve been fighting for reproductive rights for 15 years and helping people access abortions much longer. When we started talking about removing the threat of prosecution from people making decisions about their lives and their families, non-governmental organisations around us were convinced we would never change the law in our lifetime. But when we’re striving for change we need hopeful imagination.
Continued: https://goodlawproject.org/emma-campbell-we-deserve-five-star-reproductive-rights/
Lauren Harte
Sat 1 February 2025
The Department of Health has released new figures detailing the number of abortions carried out in Northern Ireland in the last year.
During 2023/24 there were 2,792 abortions carried out in Northern Ireland, an increase of 28.8% from 2,168 in 2022/23. The majority of these abortions were medical, with only 198 surgical abortions performed.
Continued: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/department-health-reveals-number-abortions-220053081.html
The chilling atmosphere of pickets and protests at clinics has given way to a new ‘gold standard’ of care
Rory Carroll, Ireland correspondent
Thu 21 Mar 2024
The family planning advisers at Shaftesbury Square still remember the days of siege when anti-abortion protesters staked out the front and rear entrance of their office in central Belfast.
Some pickets would splash holy water on the doors and daub salt crosses on the pavement while others would thrust leaflets with pictures of babies and foetuses at woman entering or leaving the building, and sometimes follow them.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/21/how-northern-ireland-came-to-lead-the-uk-on-abortion
Jade Biggs
Thu, 8 December 2022
Lawmakers in Northern Ireland can now create buffer zones around abortion clinics, following a ruling from the UK's Supreme Court. The decision means that Northern Ireland is the first part of the UK to bring in legislation on abortion clinic buffer zones – although this was rolled out on a local council level in England and Wales earlier this year.
The Supreme Court's unanimous decision allows the Northern Ireland assembly to proceed with introducing safe access zones to protect abortion clinic users and staff. The move is part of the Assembly's new Abortion Services Bill, which will criminalise those who enter abortion clinic buffer zones with the intention of influencing attendees.
Continued: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/northern-ireland-abortion-buffer-zones-130700674.html
Campaigners and the Catholic Church have given their reactions after the UK government instructed the NI Department of Health to move ahead with providing abortion services in all Trusts across the north of Ireland.
By Brendan McDaid
Dec 5, 2022
The Department of Health said it “acknowledges the legal requirements placed on it by the Secretary of State and has been working closely with the Northern Ireland Office on the planned commissioning of abortion services in Northern Ireland.”
The legal instruction on commissioning and the ring fencing of funding will mean that HSC Trusts will have the “necessary resources to ensure a full range of abortion services will be available in NI, including putting in place the necessary staffing and training required” the statement issued said.
BY KRISTEN CHICK/BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
JUNE 30, 2022
When Katie Boyd decided to have an abortion in November, she thought the process would be smooth. She had celebrated when abortion was decriminalized in Northern Ireland two years earlier, in October 2019, and two years on, it seemed logical that abortion care would now be readily available.
Boyd, 40, called a hotline intended to connect those seeking abortion with care, and was told she’d receive a call within five days from a clinic that could provide an early medication abortion. But five days went by with no call. Her follow-up calls begging for direct contact information for the clinic got her nowhere. As the days turned into weeks, Boyd began to panic.
Continued: https://time.com/6192022/northern-ireland-abortion-access/
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, access to second-trimester abortions still depends on a damaging postcode lottery
Rachel Connolly
Wed 22 Jun 2022
When a draft supreme court decision was leaked in May showing that judges intended to overturn Roe v Wade, many in the UK reacted with outrage. Rightly so: such a law change would leave abortion rules up to individual states. Rights groups estimate that abortion could become illegal in about half the states if this is successful. Americans would be forced to travel to states where it was still legal, or order costly abortion medicine online, risking severe legal consequences by doing so. Overturning Roe v Wade would probably also inspire anti-choice campaign groups to pursue legal action elsewhere in the world.
Constance Kampfner, The Times
Saturday February 19 2022
An anti-abortion charity has been accused of masquerading as a pregnancy support centre in an attempt to pressure women into backing out of having terminations.
Stanton International, an American organisation which has been accused of peddling falsehoods about termination including the claim that it causes cancer, is due to open a branch in Edinburgh.
Questions have been raised about why the local service collapsed when an Ulster University report shows that medical professionals are willing to provide the service
Garrett Hargan
21 Jun 2021
The Department of Health had said efforts are being made to reinstate an abortion service at Altnagelvin Hospital but it does not know how long it will take.
The Western Trust decided to suspend its Early Medical Abortion Service (EMA) in April ‘until further notice’.
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