More than 60 famous women have signed a letter calling on Theresa May to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland.

Their intervention comes ahead of the second reading of a Private Members’ Bill on the decriminalisation of abortion across the UK in Parliament on Friday.

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The letter asks the Prime Minister to give time for the Bill in parliament, adding that women will be waiting with “anxiety and fear as their reproductive rights are debated”.

Stars including, Kate Beckinsale, Claire Foy, Jodie Whittaker, Olivia Colman, Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, Claudia Winkleman, Sharon Horgan, Gemma Arterton, Tracey Emin, Zoë Wanamaker, Aisling Bea, Noma Dumezweni and Gemma Chan have joined Amnesty International to ask Theresa May to “do the right thing” and “champion reproductive freedom, women’s rights and healthcare”.

The celebrities write that “we’re counting on you and your government to stand with women and decriminalise abortion. Give us choice and control over our own bodies.

"Show women from Northern Ireland that you won’t stand for them being governed by one of the harshest and cruellest abortion laws in the world. Show us that you value and champion the rights of all women, no matter which part of the UK they’re from," the letter reads.

"Your government’s scheme to provide free abortion services in England for women from Northern Ireland is welcome, but this means the only option for women is to undertake a traumatic journey to undergo the procedure alone and away from home.

"No woman takes the decision to have an abortion lightly. It’s a difficult thing for anyone to have to go through. The least we can do is create a country where women can access the service safely in a place close to home, without the threat of a prison sentence. Ireland recently voted overwhelmingly to relax their restrictive abortion law. Now it’s time for the women of Northern Ireland. They cannot be left behind."

Abortion is currently illegal in Northern Ireland in all but the most extreme cases and as a result on average 28 women a week travel to England for terminations.

Campaigns for abortion legislation to be introduced in Northern Ireland have ramped up in the wake of the successful Abortion Referendum in the Republic of Ireland.

Almost 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for abortion to be decriminalised in Northern Ireland.

Labour MP Diana Johnson MP brought forward the decriminalisation Bill and said that the situation in Northern Ireland is "grave" and needs "urgent" attention.

"My decriminalisation Bill has support from almost every UK political party and will be in Parliament on Friday. The Government must give it the time it needs to progress. Women need this change. Abortion is a healthcare and human rights issue. It’s time it was treated as such.”

Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International UK’s Northern Ireland Campaign Manager, said that the government must allow the bill to go through Parliament.

"Across the UK, women are asking Theresa May a simple question: to stand with them in their fight for reproductive freedom," she said.

“Women in Northern Ireland are being failed by a lack of Government action; forced to live with the cruel reality of Northern Ireland’s strict near total abortion ban every day."

Belfast Telegraph