Most politicians in Northern Ireland are "completely out of touch" with women who want access to legal abortions, the pro-choice Irish Abortion Solidarity Campaign said in London yesterday, Rachel Donnelly writes.Pro-choice campaigners met in the House of Lords on the 30th anniversary of the Abortion Act yesterday for the launch of the Voice for Choice campaign which is calling on the British government to extend abortion legislation to Northern Ireland.
The co-ordinator of the group, Ms Jane Roe, said there were many "extreme cases" of women in Northern Ireland resorting to self-abortion because they could not afford the cost of having an abortion in Britain.
However, while there was a great deal of public and parliamentary support for extending the legislation to the North, the opposition of mainstream nationalist and unionist politicians made it difficult to ensure the issue was debated.