Pro-choice campaigners to picket police stations in Northern Ireland

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/15/northern-ireland-pro-choice-protest-police-stations

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Pro-choice campaigners plan to picket two of the largest police stations in Northern Ireland on Wednesday and challenge the authorities to arrest them for breaking the law by procuring abortion pills.

The protests, which are due to take place outside Musgrave Street police station in Belfast and Strand Road station in Derry, have been declared “an act of solidarity” with a Northern Irish woman who is being prosecuted for obtaining abortion medication for her pregnant underage daughter.

It is understood that the girl was taken to hospital by her mother for post-termination treatment after taking Mifepristone and Misoprostol, medication that is commonly used to induce miscarriage.

The woman, who cannot be named, was arrested and charged with procuring a poison or other noxious substance in the knowledge that it was to be used for causing a miscarriage. She faces trial later this year.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where the 1967 Abortion Act does not apply. The case has outraged pro-choice campaigners in Northern Ireland.

Shá Gillespie, of Alliance for Choice, said: “Our basic message to the police and the Public Prosecution Service on Wednesday is this: either prosecute all of us or drop the charges against this individual woman.”

The protesters will in effect own up to having broken the same law as the unnamed mother. A letter containing 205 signatures has been sent to the prosecution service urging it to drop the case.

“We are challenging the police and the PPS to stop turning this individual – a mother who was doing right by her child – into a scapegoat,” Gillespie said.

“This move is a really nasty one against this woman and has to be opposed. The women, and even some men, who have signed the letter will be calling on the police at these protests to take us all on rather than pick on one single person.”

Gillespie said a number of pro-choice campaigners were prepared to enter police stations and challenge the PSNI to arrest them for obtaining abortion pills for women and girls who sought to terminate their pregnancies. Between 12 to 15 women were consulting lawyers, she said.

Abortion is only legal in Northern Ireland if a woman’s life is at risk or if there is a risk of permanent or serious damage to her mental or physical health. About 2,000 women a year travel to English hospitals and clinics from Northern Ireland to have terminations. There is strong opposition in the Northern Ireland Assembly to liberalising the abortion laws.