Drone To Fly Abortion Pills Into Northern Ireland
Pro-choice activists in Belfast, January 2016 [Photo: Getty]
Terminating a pregnancy if you live in Northern Ireland is a tricky feat indeed. Unless you fit specific, strict criteria, it can’t legally be done at home - so your only option is to travel to England, Scotland or Wales to do it instead and pay through the nose for it.
This is why abortion rights campaigners are taking matters into their own hands and are planning to fly a drone carrying abortion pills from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland.
[Photo: Pexels]
On Tuesday at 10am, the drone will launch from Omeath, County Louth, and end up landing near Narrow Water, County Down, in Northern Ireland.
The idea behind the project - led by abortion rights groups Rosa, Alliance for Choice, Labour Alternative and Women on Waves - is that it will draw attention to the restrictive abortion laws in the two areas; in both places it’s illegal except under strict circumstances, and women could face a prison sentence if they obtain the medication to do it themselves.
Belfast City Hall [Photo: Flickr/Iker Merodio]
“It is an all-island act of solidarity between women in the north and the south to highlight the violation of human rights caused by the existing laws that criminalise abortion in both the north and south of Ireland except in very limited circumstances,” a spokesperson for Rosa said in a statement.
[Photo: Pexels]
Once the drone arrives, the (non-pregnant) women on the other side will take mifepristone, a pill administered by doctors during legal abortions, to demonstrate how safe it is.
What do you think? Will this get the activists’ message across? Tweet us @YahooStyleUK.
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