Amnesty International has called for an end to the criminalisation of women in Northern Ireland who have taken abortion pills.
The human rights organisation was responding to the second case in a week of a woman accused of procuring abortion pills coming before a Belfast court.
The second case involving a mother who stands accused of supplying pills to her pregnant underage daughter was adjourned on Wednesday until the end of April.
Earlier this week a 21-year-old woman was sentenced to three months in prison suspended for a year after she pleaded guilty to taking abortion pills to induce a miscarriage two years ago.
Amnesty International said it was a “grotesque spectacle” that women were being brought before the courts because they took abortion pills.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where abortion is banned, except in extremely limited circumstances such as a direct threat to a mother’s life if the pregnancy continues.
Under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, anyone carrying out an abortion in the region can be jailed for life.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty’s director in Northern Ireland, said: “The criminalisation of women in Northern Ireland must stop.
“Reproductive healthcare must be taken out of the realm of criminal justice and addressed as an issue of public health and human rights. Abortion should be a matter for women and their doctors, not judges.
“Northern Ireland’s abortion law must be changed to bring it into line with international standards. Abortion must be decriminalised and women should be able to access free and legal abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape and incest.”
Mifepristone and misoprostol are the drugs approved by the World Health Organisation that women access to induce terminations in the early stages of pregnancy.
Pro-choice organisations provide women both in the Republic Of Ireland and Northern Ireland with these pills, especially those who cannot afford to travel across to Great Britain for a termination at a private clinic.
