Officials feared Irish women travelling for abortion could be prosecuted on return

In wake of X case and 1992 referendum, EU travel rules created headaches for Government

Órla Ryan
Sun Dec 28 2025

Government officials were concerned that, in the wake of the X case, women who left Ireland to access abortion services overseas could face penalties when they returned, newly released documents show.

A cabinet briefing document also raised concerns that any injunction preventing women from travelling from Ireland to another EU country for a termination could breach the recently ratified Maastricht Treaty and its guarantees on freedom of movement within the bloc.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/history/2025/12/28/officials-feared-irish-women-travelling-for-abortion-could-be-prosecuted-on-return/

28.12.2025

News

1992 referendum in Ireland

Maastricht Treaty

travelling to England

Scottish ministers accused of failing women who cannot get later abortions

Campaigners say ‘extremely vulnerable women’ are having to travel hundreds of miles to visit English clinics

Libby Brooks, Scotland correspondent
Mon 21 Apr 2025

Campaigners have warned Scottish ministers that they are failing in their legal and moral duties as growing numbers of “extremely vulnerable women” have to travel hundreds of miles south because they cannot access later-term abortions in Scotland.

Not one of Scotland’s 14 regional health boards provide abortion care after 20 weeks except in the specific cases of foetal abnormality or threat to a woman’s life. This is despite the Scottish government promising to rectify this “explicit inequality” three years ago, and abortion being legal on broad grounds until 24 weeks across the UK.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/21/scottish-government-failing-women-who-cant-access-later-term-abortions-campaigners-say

Around 240 Irish women still travel to the UK every year for abortions

April 7, 2025

At least 5,860 European women crossed borders for abortions in 2023. This includes Ireland, even after the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in 2018.

The Journal Investigates latest report showed that women still come across bureaucratic hurdles that force them to travel. Its editor, Maria Delaney, said Irish women continue to travel to Britain for abortions.

Continued: https://www.newstalk.com/news/around-240-irish-women-still-travel-to-the-uk-every-year-for-abortions-2152245

07.04.2025

News

Eighth Amendment

Maria Delaney

travelling for abortion

travelling to England

Europe

Ireland

‘I had to go to England for my abortion because Scotland told me no’

Since 2019, almost 300 women have travelled to England to receive healthcare they were unable to access in Scotland.

Hannah Brown
July 21, 2023

The number of women travelling from Scotland to England to receive later abortion care has increased by 55% in the past year, new figures show.

In 2021, the number of women travelling to England was 42 but in 2022, new figures from the British Pregnancy Advice Service (BPAS), seen exclusively by STV News, show this increased to 65.

Since 2019, 282 women have travelled from Scotland to England to attain the service.

Continued: https://news.stv.tv/scotland/hundreds-of-women-forced-to-travel-from-scotland-to-england-for-abortion-care

Abortion: the story of suffering and death behind Ireland’s ban and subsequent legalization

Published: May 16, 2022
Gretchen E. Ely

If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the U.S., the nation may find itself on a path similar to that trod by the Irish people from 1983 to 2018. A draft decision signed by the majority of conservative justices was leaked in May 2022, and indicates the court may do just that.

Abortion was first prohibited in Ireland through what was called the Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861. That law became part of Irish law when Ireland gained independence from the U.K. in 1922. In the early 1980s, some anti-abortion Catholic activists noticed the liberalization of abortion laws in other Western democracies and worried the same might happen in Ireland.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/abortion-the-story-of-suffering-and-death-behind-irelands-ban-and-subsequent-legalization-182812

The 8th: Ireland, the abortion referendum. You can feel the tectonic plates shifting

TV: This highly watchable film chronicles the Repeal side’s winning campaign of 2018

Wed, Aug 4, 2021
Ed Power

The historic significance of the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, in the referendum of 2018, was lost on nobody at the time. Three years later, The 8th (RTÉ One, Wednesday, 9.35pm) captures the sense that tectonic plates were shifting under Irish society as the electorate went to the polls to allow abortion in Ireland.

The 8th, which comes to television after a video-on-demand run earlier this year, is told largely from the perspective of the Repeal campaign, particularly that of the veteran women’s-rights advocate Ailbhe Smyth. The point she and other campaigners make over and over is that, although the vote was of course about restoring to women their bodily autonomy, the wider context was the State’s beginning a long journey of atonement for decades of institutionalised misogyny.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/the-8th-ireland-the-abortion-referendum-you-can-feel-the-tectonic-plates-shifting-1.4638914

Britain orders Northern Ireland to introduce full abortion services

‘This stalemate leaves me no choice,’ UK Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis tells Belfast leaders.

by SHAWN POGATCHNIK
July 22, 2021

The British government has ordered Northern Ireland’s coalition government to introduce full-fledged abortion services, more than a year after legislation passed in Westminster required this to happen.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis issued the order Thursday directing the U.K. region’s Department of Health and Health Minister Robin Swann to make Northern Ireland compliant with British abortion law.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-orders-northern-ireland-to-introduce-full-abortion-services/

22.07.2021

Featured

News

Brandon Lewis

commissioning abortion services

Democratic Unionist Party

Robin Swann

Stormont

travelling to England

BBC’s ‘Three Families’ Shows How the Fight For Abortion Rights in the UK Continues

Sian Norris
14 May 2021

The BBC drama
Three Families told the story of the fight to decriminalise abortion in
Northern Ireland from the perspectives of three women, all based on real-life
stories.

The first focused on a mother who faced criminal prosecution for purchasing
abortion pills online for her 15-year-old daughter who was in an abusive
relationship. The second followed a woman whose baby had a fatal foetal
abnormality but was still forced to carry it to term. The final woman’s baby
also had a fatal foetal abnormality. She died in the womb and the mother was
induced.

Continued: https://bylinetimes.com/2021/05/14/bbcs-three-families-misses-the-point-that-fight-for-abortion-rights-in-the-uk-continues/

N.Ireland – Three Families reveals true tales of ‘abortion’

Many of the best TV dramas have been inspired by real life events.

By The Newsroom
Sunday, 9th May 2021

Later this week, BBC Two will broadcast Danny Boy, which tells the story of soldier Brian Wood, whose actions during the Iraq war were controversially called into question.

But BBC One gets in on the act early with a new two-part series (it concludes on Tuesday) originally entitled When It Happens To You, which was first announced back in 2019, just as Northern Ireland was about to make a momentous alteration to one of its laws.

Continued: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/arts-and-culture/film-and-tv/three-families-reveals-true-tales-of-abortion-3228250

09.05.2021

travelling to England

When It Happens To You

Europe

Northern Ireland

Writer of BBC drama Three Families ‘amazed’ at Northern Ireland’s abortion laws

Tom Horton
May 02 2021

The writer of a new drama which focuses on abortion in Northern Ireland has said she was "amazed" to discover how many women from the region travel to England to undergo the procedure.

Gwyneth Hughes' two-part series Three Families, starring Irish actress Sinead Keenan, is set between 2013 and 2019, and tells the true story of three women and their families before the recent change to legislation.

Continued: https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-news/writer-of-bbc-drama-three-families-amazed-at-northern-irelands-abortion-laws-40379222.html

02.05.2021