An estimated 12 women per day travel from Ireland and Northern Ireland, where abortion is also illegal, to access the procedure at private clinics in Great Britain. Around three Irish women per day purchase abortion pills online, which induce miscarriage in early pregnancies. The medication is illegal in Ireland and Northern Ireland, although it is widely considered to be safe.

ROSA volunteers on the bus will help connect women facing crisis pregnancies with Women on Web, an online organisation that supplies the pills required for a medical abortion to women in countries where the procedure is illegal.

“We work with Women on Web because they’re an amazing group of doctors and activists who support women’s choices all around the world, even if the political establishments of their countries have not caught up with the fact that women’s healthcare has to include reproductive rights and has to include abortion,” Harrold said.

“We’re linking women with Women on Web, who will do a medical consultation through the website, and women can also speak to one of their doctors through Skype or the phone if necessary.”

As well as rallies at the bus’s numerous scheduled stops, which include Waterford, Limerick, and Maynooth, volunteers will also provide educational information on abortion, the distribution of which is restricted in Ireland.

“I went to a Catholic school – which you don’t really get a choice in here anyway – and abortion was only talked about in our religion class where our male religion teacher told us abortion was horrible,” Niamh Plunkett, a biomedical science student at University College Dublin, where the Bus4Repeal launched on Monday, told us. “That’s the only point that it’s talked about and you can’t get the correct information.”

Harrold told us she believes there is still a lot of “scaremongering” around abortion in Ireland. “The Irish media don’t necessarily fully represent the whole story, so we’re trying to put the essential information to people, to empower them to be able to take care of their own health,” she said.