Abortion Support Network (ASN) was founded in October 2009 to provide direct, practical assistance to women travelling to England to access safe and legal abortions. Although there are many groups that campaign for law reform in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, ASN is currently the only organisation on record that provides financial help and accommodation to women who need abortions.
Through fundraising and donations from our supporters, we provide grants towards the cost of women’s abortions. Our volunteer hosts provide women with accommodation and meals in their homes, and travel with them to and from clinics.
Every year more than 5,000 women travel to England from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in order to access abortions (Department of Health, 2009). In both Northern Ireland – despite being part of the UK – and the Republic of Ireland, abortion is illegal except under extremely limited circumstances. Even if women meet these strict criteria, it is virtually impossible for them to access a safe and legal abortion in their own country. ASN can also help women travelling from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and can provide information to any woman travelling to England to access a legal abortion.
It is legal for women from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to travel abroad for an abortion, but as non-residents of England they are required to pay privately for their abortion procedure. Even with the discounted prices offered by some abortion providers to women travelling from other countries, women must pay between £350 and £1350 for the procedure alone, depending on the stage of pregnancy. With the additional costs of accommodation, last minute plane tickets, child care and time off work, women can end up paying as much as £2000 to access a medical procedure which is paid for by the NHS for women living in England, Scotland and Wales.
More information about ASN, the women we help, and the law in Ireland can be found in our FAQs and in our most recent annual report.
If you are interested in learning more about the legal situations in Ireland and Northern Ireland and the issues women face when seeking an abortion in England from elsewhere, you can learn more from the following resources:
- The Safe and Legal (in Ireland) Abortion Rights Campaign
- Alliance for Choice
- The fpa’s Time for Change campaign, for women’s rights to abortion in Northern Ireland
- A similar abortion assistance network operated from 1980-2001, and has been documented in a book by Ann Rossiter
