BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Tyler McNally was surprised when he answered a knock on the door of his Belfast house one evening to find two police officers standing there, and shocked when they presented a warrant to search the premises. They had reason to believe, Mr. McNally was told, that he had ordered abortion pills online for “a vulnerable woman.”

The case was eventually dropped for lack of evidence. But Mr. McNally said in an interview that there was no mistaking the intimidating nature of the raid, and wondered if that wasn’t the point of it all.

“Having two police officers sit in my living room and tell me that I may face life imprisonment only to then toy with the idea of bringing me in for questioning in cuffs or just invite me in to ‘try and get me to talk’ was quite a harrowing experience,” he said, “and I’m not someone depending on access to abortion services.”

Ireland’s vote on Friday to end its near ban on abortion, overwhelmingly supporting change in what used to be a bastion of Roman Catholic influence, has inspired many calls in Belfast, London and elsewhere for similar liberalization in British-ruled Northern Ireland, whose draconian laws governing the termination of pregnancy date to the 19th century.