24 Sep 2026
Lili Busby, BBC News NI
Plans to light up Belfast City Hall to mark Safe Abortion Day will not go ahead on Monday after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) used a council procedure to challenge the decision.
The landmark was due to be lit up green, after a request by the National Women's Council of Ireland and a motion brought to the council by the Alliance Party.
That motion was opposed by unionist parties and anti-abortion organisations.
DUP’s Tracy Kelly said building should not be turned into ‘billboard for abortion’
Niall McGreevy
2 Sep 2026
Belfast City Council have voted in favour of lighting up city hall to mark International Safe Abortion Day, however a DUP councillor said his party will “do everything they can to stop it”.
The council vote passed after the proposal received 36 votes saying yes and 18 against.
The request was made for the first time by the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWC), who wanted to illuminate the building in green.
Campaigners behind request to illuminate building for International Safe Abortion Day say ‘unsafe abortion remains a leading but preventable cause of maternal death’
By Allan Preston
August 24, 2026
A council vote on whether Belfast City Hall can be lit up in support of abortion rights is expected to take place next week. Making the request in Belfast for the first time, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWC) want to illuminate the building in green on September 28 to mark International Safe Abortion Day.
At a council committee meeting last week it was endorsed by Green, Alliance, Sinn Féin and SDLP councillors with the DUP voting against.
Continued: https://archive.is/Xot8H
(https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/protestors-claim-belfast-city-hall-being-used-as-billboard-for-abortion-ahead-of-council-vote-RBBWL44R2JGY3NEEVTT56EPCI4/)
European NGOs said they would launch a new initiative aimed at advancing reproductive rights.
By Lauren Chadwick
March 5, 2024
Women's rights activists across Europe are joining forces to push for a dedicated funding mechanism in the European Union to make sure that women in the bloc have access to abortion.
The movement called "My Voice, My Choice" was launched in Slovenia on Tuesday and brought together activists from several European countries including Spain, Finland, Poland, France, Croatia, and Ireland.
"We are organising at the European level to push the abortion issue forward," Marta Lempart, one of the leaders of the Polish Women's Strike, told Euronews Health ahead of the announcement.
By Niamh Kennedy and Emily Blumenthal, CNN
Thu May 25, 2023
In 2018, the Irish public voted overwhelmingly to repeal the country’s Eighth Amendment, overturning one of the strictest abortion bans in the European Union. There were scenes of jubilation as the referendum result was announced, with many in Ireland seeing it as a historic step that would give women control over their own bodies.
But five years on, although abortion is free and legally available in Ireland up to 12 weeks of pregnancy – after that allowed only in exceptional circumstances, if there is a risk to the mother’s life or the fetus is not expected to survive – the abortion system is still far from where campaigners and charities would like it to be.
Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/25/europe/ireland-abortion-referendum-5-years-intl-cmd/index.html
Total of 6,577 abortions last year represents slight decline on first year of service in 2019
August 17, 2021
Jennifer Bray
An independent expert is to be appointed to review Ireland’s abortion laws three years after the country voted in a landslide referendum to allow terminations in certain circumstances.
The Termination of Pregnancy Act provides for a review of the legislation three years after its implementation.
Coronavirus: Concern crisis could prevent timely access to abortion services
Women’s groups say need to visit a GP twice in three days ‘irreconcilable’ with restricted travel
Fri, Mar 27, 2020
Kitty Holland, Social Affairs Correspondent
Doctors and women’s groups are concerned that timely access to abortion services could be compromised during the coronavirus outbreak.
They say the legal requirement that a woman seeking an early medical abortion (before 12 weeks) must make two GP visits, three days apart, is “irreconcilable” with current public health advice to avoid all but essential travel.
Renewed call for safe access zones for abortion services
Monday, 6 Jan 2020
By Ailbhe Conneely
The Abortion Rights Alliance has used Nollaig na mBan to issue a statement calling for safe and accessible abortion provision. In a statement, spokesperson Charlene Delaney said "many continue to be left behind by the failings in our legislation".
She has accused the Government of failing to deliver or introduce legislation on safe access zones, which it has promised on countless occasions.
Continued: https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0106/1104625-abortion-rights-call/
Abortion campaigners protest ‘restrictions’ in legislation
Hundreds march through Dublin and call for introduction of safe zones around facilities
Sep 28, 2019
Shauna Bowers
Abortion rights activists marched through Dublin on Saturday to protest against the “restrictions” in the Ireland’s abortion legislation.
The theme of the 8th annual march, which was the first since Ireland legalised abortion in December last year, was “nobody left behind”.
Ireland’s Path to Legalizing Abortion
At a time when the United States may render it illegal
Shirley Graham
July 5, 2018
On May 25, 2018, I traveled from Washington, D.C., to Dublin to vote in a referendum that would decide whether women in Ireland would have full access to their reproductive healthcare and rights. I was one of the 40,000 diaspora Irish who returned from different corners of the globe (only recent emigres were eligible) to be part of a feminist movement that would make history. When the repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution was passed the next day with 66 percent voting in favor, the country heaved a collective sigh of relief.
In the lead-up to the referendum, women were forced to share previously untold stories of private ordeals and personal tragedies in order to persuade the Irish population that it could no longer export this problem to the United Kingdom.
Continued: http://prospect.org/article/ireland%E2%80%99s-path-legalizing-abortion
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