An interview with Alliance for Choice Derry
By Rebecca Crockett
The news that Roe v Wade had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court sent shockwaves all over the world. The landmark ruling, which ended the constitutional right for women to gain access to abortion, led some U.S. states to quickly implement new bans or restrictions on abortions.
Protests in response to the historical decision were on an international scale. In the UK, marches were organised in cities like Edinburgh, Manchester and Cardiff. Protesters stood outside the US embassy in London holding signs and singing songs.
But 500 miles from where Pro-Choice activists stood in solidarity with America, pregnant people in Northern Ireland suffer from inadequate abortion services.
Northern Ireland’s laws on abortion go right back to 1861 with the Offences Against the Person’s Act. This made abortion a criminal offence and anyone found helping women to access the procedure risked life in prison. That was until 2019 when abortion was decriminalised in the region.
Yet 3 years on pregnant people in the area are still struggling to access abortion services, with 161 people travelling from Northern Ireland to England to have the procedure in the last year.
This is not good enough according to the activism group Alliance for Choice Derry. Based in a city that often is at the centre of political debates, Alliance for Choice Derry advocates for free, safe, legal and local abortions in Northern Ireland. Member Becca Bor told Wempower access needs to be extended to the whole of the region. “Here abortion has been decriminalised, but we don’t have access yet. People might not be getting thrown into jail or they are not receiving a visit from the PSNI (Police service of Northern Ireland), but if you don’t have access to an abortion, you don’t have access to an abortion.”
Originally from Boston, Becca joined Alliance for Choice Derry when she moved to Northern Ireland in 2014. She first became involved with organising a rally in support of a mother who had been arrested for purchasing Abortion pills for her 15-year-old daughter.
Becca explained, “The reason we wanted to do that was that we wanted to basically say to the PSNI if you’re going to go after this woman then come after all of us”.
Alliance for Choice Derry has been at the forefront of the reproductive rights movement for decades. Their work in Derry began in 1996 after having grown from a thriving network of feminists operating in the city in the late seventies.
The activist group organises protests, workshops, film screenings and even lobbies government officials around abortion legislation. However, their message is largely local. “The reason why local is so important is because people’s lives are local, their networks are local,” said Becca, “we need to shift what people are learning about in schools, how we think about abortion.”
Maeve O’Brien has been a part of Alliance for Choice Derry for 12 years. She said that the non-hierarchical framework on which the group was founded, helped to support their method of local activism while simultaneously catering to the busy lives of their primarily female membership. “They structured the group in a non-hierarchical way because…women as we know have so many other responsibilities… so it was important that you could dip in and dip out to do the work.” Maeve said, “the group kind of regenerated itself because of this, you could come in and whether you had been there 10 years or 10 days people listened to you and your ideas.”
This way of working has endured throughout the group’s 26 years of action and now people of all genders advocate across social media platforms and on countless lobbying days.
Maeve said that by making Alliance for Choice Derry inclusive and supportive to its members, they ensure that they don’t exclude voices from the movement. “Abortion is actually the foundation upon which societies and communities can really function,” Maeve told Wempower, “for us abortion and reproductive justice is something that intersects with the lives of everyone.”
While Alliance for Choice Derry mainly focuses on local organising, the group often stands in international solidarity with countries like Poland, Mexico and more recently America.
Right now, the group is holding weekly protests for a polish activist called Justyna Wydrzyńska who is facing 3 years in prison for obtaining abortion pills for a young woman under the strict new abortion laws in Poland.
The organisation was also a key player in the Repeal the 8th Campaign in the Republic of Ireland which successfully won the referendum on whether the government should legislate for abortion. Many commentators attribute the victory to the personal stories which emerged from individuals about their experiences with abortion and pregnancy.
“It really humanised the referendum and it was very very affecting. But at the same time the idea that people should have to bear their traumas and talk about personal things in their lives in order to gain healthcare and be approved by people is problematic.” Maeve said, “This idea of good and bad abortions, it is deeply problematic.”
Since 2019 pro-choice activists in Northern Ireland have been waiting for the introduction of full abortion access in the state, however, this has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and active attempts to block abortion legislation by anti-abortion parties like the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party).
In 2021 early medical abortions were suspended due to staffing issues but The Western Health and Social Care Trust, a healthcare provider in Northern Ireland, recently announced that the service would recommence in July. This is a huge step forward for pro-choice activists across the north of Ireland, but it is also met with some caution.
When speaking about the news Maeve recalled attending the 2019 Rally for Choice in Belfast where Bernadette Devlin spoke to a crowd of thousands. At the time, the civil rights activist warned that “In those heady days that look like victory- be careful, for you’re never over the finish line”.
Maeve echoed this sentiment saying, “If you think about it [reproductive rights] has never been codified in the law and we see it in the UK at the minute, this kind of caution that it could be rolled back, abortion rights could be rolled back in the morning.”
When asked about whether the news would bring hope to the pro-choice movement, Becca was also apprehensive to declare it an outright triumph, “We saw what happened in the United States, that something that feels like it is enshrined in the constitution can be swept out from under your feet”.
It is no surprise that both Becca and Maeve show some wariness in the face of promises from government bodies. One of the core principles of Alliance for Choice Derry is its reliance on people rather than politicians.
“Abortions are always going to happen no matter what,” Becca told Wempower “When you make abortion illegal what you have done is you’ve allowed wealthy people to have abortions. You have made it for people who are already struggling most in their lives, have more difficulty accessing abortion”.
In such uncertain times, it is hard to plan for the future. Alliance for Choice Derry may not have to advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion in the North of Ireland anymore, but they do have to protect it. Becca told Wempower that education was the first step in doing that.
“What do we do about education? What do we do about contraception? And the type of sexual and relationship health education that happens in schools, how do we change some of the stigma around it?” Said Becca.
It is in this way that Alliance for Choice Derry will adapt to whatever comes their way, even if it means continuing to provide information and support like they always have. Becca explained, “I can imagine Alliance for Choice really changing now that abortion has been decriminalised. For a while we thought that we wouldn’t have to have pills anymore… we thought now they will be able to get them legally but we don’t have access yet.”
When asked where they saw Alliance for Choice Derry heading in the coming years, Becca and Maeve gave a variety of plans and predictions. However, for both of them, one thing was certain, “I don’t see Alliance for Choice as an activist organisation disappearing any time soon“, said Becca.
Maeve was just as clear about Alliance for Choice Derry’s future, “I think for us there is no end goal here, all we can hope is that we will pass the torch on to the next generation.
This is a battle that will never win but we need to play our part in ensuring that people can get access when they need it.”
More information on the work of Alliance for Choice Derry can be found on their website, Twitter and Facebook.
