Home > News > Give Women In Northern Ireland The Right To Choose, Says Fpa, As It Launches Its Campaign To Secure Rights To Abortion For Women In Northern Ireland
Give Women In Northern Ireland The Right To Choose, Says Fpa, As It Launches Its Campaign To Secure Rights To Abortion For Women In Northern Ireland
The fpa has officially launched its groundbreaking campaign to secure rights to abortion in Northern Ireland. Currently women in Northern Ireland do not have the legal right to choose. Supported by celebrities Tony Robinson, Polly Toynbee and Dr Miriam Stoppard, fpa has launched a national postcard and internet campaign and working with the Voice for Choice coalition[1] and supporting a cross party group of MPs[2] who are putting down an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. This amendment will extend abortion across the whole of the UK to include Northern Ireland and will be debated in the House of Commons after the summer recess.
The 1967 Abortion Act was never extended to Northern Ireland. Therefore, abortion is a procedure only available in 'exceptional circumstances'. Because of this discrimination, since 1967, over 50,000 women in Northern Ireland have been forced to travel to England and pay, not just for a private abortion, but all the associated costs of accommodation and travel. In 2007 alone, almost 1,400[3] women left Northern Ireland and paid up to two and a half thousand pounds to have an abortion.
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