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.
Chants would reach the third floor where counsellors briefed clients on options for an unwanted or troubled pregnancy. “Hey, hey FPA,” said the voices from the street blow, “how many children have you killed today?”
It was a chilling atmosphere, said Ruairi Rowan, the director of advocacy and policy Informing Choices Northern Ireland (ICNI), a sexual and reproductive health charity that took over the office from the former Family Planning Association branch. “People felt intimidated. Sometimes we would start a counselling session with what had happened outside on their way in.”
A decade later the scene is transformed. Today there are no protests at Shaftesbury Square and the only sound from the third floor is the hum of traffic. Northern Ireland’s ban on abortion has given way to decriminalisation and a progressive jurisdiction.
“Abortion services are now available in all five hospital trusts in Northern Ireland which enable the majority of demand to be met locally,” said the department of health. Medical abortion is available in all circumstances as set out in 2020 regulations and surgical abortion is available for up to 20 weeks. “Work is ongoing to ensure this service is expanded as soon as possible up to 24 weeks gestation,” the department added. “Women requiring access to this service can continue to access free abortion care in Great Britain.”
Decriminalisation means Northern Ireland, once associated with draconian restrictions, now offers greater protection to women compared with England and Wales, where they can be prosecuted for terminating pregnancies after the 24-week limit.
“We do have one of the best laws in the world now,” said Emma Campbell of Alliance for Choice. “It doesn’t make any sense that you wouldn’t just use that minimum gold standard to extend to the whole country.”
Many activists in Northern Ireland feel the region is ahead of the curve – a contrast to 2017 when a mother was charged for helping her 15-year-old pregnant daughter obtain abortion pills online. “Because nobody is under threat of prosecution it just makes it so much easier to help people,” said Campbell. “It really makes 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”. Great Britain legalised abortion up to 24 weeks in most circumstances in 1967 but Northern Ireland retained a ban endorsed by Catholic and Protestant leaders.
Secularisation, legal challenges and high profile cases, such as Sarah Ewart who was forced to travel to England for a termination after being told her baby could not survive, shifted public opinion but it was a vote in Westminster, not Stormont, that legalised abortion in 2019.
Service rollout was slow and uneven, a casualty of disputes between the Northern Ireland Office and the department of health, the Covid pandemic and lack of political will and deadlock in Belfast. That changed in March 2022 when the UK government overrode the Stormont executive and instructed the region’s health trusts to provide abortion services.
The department of health did not provide figures but ICNI estimates that since then about 7,600 abortions have been performed. “There is a sense of relief and pride that women are no longer forced to travel to access healthcare that they should always have had access to. It has removed much of the stigma,” said Rowan.
Sporadic protests have been held outside clinics but last September a law that creates a buffer zone came into effect, making it illegal for people to be “impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress” within designated areas.
“We still see protesters standing with graphic imagery but it is welcome that we have legislation to tackle that,” said Connie Egan, the Alliance party’s spokesperson on violence against women and girls, speaking in a personal capacity.
Pro-choice campaigners also welcome the fact Stanton Healthcare, an anti-abortion charity, stopped appearing near the top of Google searches for people seeking information.
Some women still leave Northern Ireland for abortions but the number of contacts to Abortion Support Network, a UK charity, has fallen from 28 in 2021, eight in 2022 and six in 2023, said Annie Tidbury, an ASN service manager. The calls do show enduring uncertainty about availability of local services though, she said. “A lack of clear information can create fear for people.”
There are other concerns. The number of refugees seeking help is believed 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 objection within the health service is relatively high.
Alyson Kilpatrick, chief commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, said services had not been implemented consistently and in full, leading to delays. “We recommend that the UK government, working with the department of health, ensures that sufficient, long-term, ringfenced funding is available and fully utilised 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.”
