28 Women Dragging Suitcases March for
Abortion Rights in Northern Ireland
By Iliana Magra
Feb. 27, 2019
LONDON — Twenty-eight women dragged
suitcases across Westminster bridge in
London this week to protest restrictive
abortion laws in Northern Ireland and
demand the expansion of abortion rights.
The number of protesters was not random and
symbolized “the 28 women who are forced to
make the lonely journey to England to access
abortion services every week,” Grainne
Teggart, the Northern Ireland campaign
manager for Amnesty International, said in a
phone interview on Wednesday morning.
The women — including members of the
British Parliament and television stars —
marched on Tuesday to the office of Karen
Bradley, a Conservative member of
Parliament and the Northern Ireland
Secretary in Westminster. They carried with
them a petition started by Amnesty
International asking the British government
to take action to reform Northern Ireland’s
abortion law.
“Northern Ireland is now isolated as the only
part of the U.K. and Ireland with a near total
abortion ban,” Ms. Teggart said in a
statement on Tuesday. “This is
unacceptable.”
Each of the protesters carried a suitcase to
Westminster — the first four containing
sheets of paper with the 62,000 names of
people who had signed the petition.
“Each paper looked like a flight ticket,” said
Ms. Teggart, to note the fact that women
living in Northern Ireland have to fly to
England in order to have an abortion.
More than 64,900 people had signed the
petition by Wednesday afternoon.
Northern Ireland has been under intense
pressure to alter its abortion laws, which ban
the procedure in nearly all cases, since
Ireland voted to repeal its own restrictive
abortion ban in May. Less than two weeks
later, Britain’s Supreme Court rejected a
case that attempted to overturn Northern
Ireland’s abortion laws. The case had been
brought by the Northern Ireland Human
Rights Commission, but was rejected over a
legal technicality.
However, the president of the court, Justice
Brenda M. Hale, said at the time that a
majority of justices were “of the firm and
clear opinion that the current law is
incompatible” with the European Convention
on Human Rights.
Britain legalized abortion in 1967, but that
measure does not extend to Northern Ireland
partly because of the devolved
administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland
and Wales, which exercise some individual
powers while remaining part of the United
Kingdom.
But the National Assembly in Belfast has
been suspended since November 2017, and
the pressure on the British government to act
is mounting.
“It’s about time Westminster stopped
dragging their feet, and brought about the
change needed,” Ms. Teggart said, by
committing to passing legislature.
Nicola Coughlan, one of the lead actresses in
“Derry Girls,” a popular television series set
in 1990s Northern Ireland, said in
a statement on Tuesday that she and others
were marching “to show the U.K.
government that we won’t stop until women
in Northern Ireland get their rights.”

“It’s almost unbelievable that women in

Northern Ireland are still being persecuted by
a Victorian-era abortion ban,” she added.

Siobhan McSweeney, another actress in

“Derry Girls,” said: “It’s 2019, yet women in
Northern Ireland still face restrictions on their
reproductive rights that women across the
rest of the UK and Ireland do not. It’s our
time for change.”

Women who have been affect by the abortion

restrictions were part of the marching group
of 28, as were abortion rights activists and
five cross-party members of Parliament,
including Heidi Allen, one of the
Conservative lawmakers who defected from
Prime Minister Theresa May’s governing
party last week.

Anti-abortion protesters also held a counter-

demonstration in Westminster on Tuesday.
They carried pink balloons and placards
bearing the words “protect every human.”

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