Abortion is now legal in Ireland. But in the past, women had to travel to England to have abortions. Pro-choice author Judith Orr wrote:
“Doctors in Northern Ireland may recommend an abortion to women who discover that their foetus has a severe or fatal abnormality, but not actually offer one. In such cases, a woman’s pregnancy may be too far advanced for a medical termination with pills, so women are forced to travel to a strange city and clinic in Britain – often at a time of great grief at the prospect of losing a wanted pregnancy – and, until a change in government policy in 2017, pay many hundreds of pounds for an abortion. Couple sometimes want to bury the remains back home, or want a postmortem examination to find out the cause of a fatal foetal anomaly and have been known to be left with no alternative but to carry them back in a picnic cool bag.”
Judith Orr Abortion Wars: The Fight for Reproductive Rights (Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2017) 24
Below: baby aborted at 6 months
