Pro-choice campaigners have picketed one of the largest police stations in Northern Ireland and challenged the authorities in the region to arrest them for breaking the law by procuring abortion pills.
They said the protest outside Strand Road PSNI station in Derry on Wednesday evening was “an act of solidarity” with a Northern Irish woman who is being prosecuted for obtaining abortion medication for her pregnant, underage daughter two years ago.
The mother will be prosecuted later this year for breaking the region’s strict anti-abortion laws. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where the 1967 Abortion Act does not apply.
It is understood that after she procured the medication for her underage daughter the mother took her to hospital for post-termination treatment. Pro-choice activists believe it was after she visited the hospital that someone reported her to the police.
She has been charged with procuring a “poison or other noxious substance”, mifepristone and misoprostol, in the knowledge they were to be used to cause a miscarriage. The mother appeared in court last month, but the trial is not expected to take place until the end of the year, possibly near Christmas.
The pro-choice activists had originally planned to stage a parallel protest outside Musgrave Street PSNI station in central Belfast but decided on Wednesday to postpone that demonstration and concentrate on the Derry police base.
They handed in a letter signed by 205 people who admit they too procured the abortion pills. The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland declined to comment about the action.
PSNI Det Supt Andrea McMullan said the police were aware of the letter and were assessing its contents. She said: “Abortion is a very emotive issue and as police our role is to uphold the law. It would depend on the specific circumstances of an incident as to whether or not an offence has been committed, and each case would be investigated on its own merit.
“Police would remind the public not to take prescription drugs that have not been prescribed to them. The taking of any prescription drug is potentially harmful if used without appropriate medical supervision.”
