Northern Ireland is hurtling towards a new era – if Stormont, the national parliament, does not reform before October 21, the UK government will officially begin the process of liberalising laws around abortion and marriage equality. Given that Stormont has remained a decaying institution on a hill for over two and a half years, it’s likely that this will go through. Decades after the rest of the UK; and over a year behind the Republic of Ireland which repealed the draconian 8th amendment in 2018, it looks like Northern Ireland’s archaic political system will be propelled into modernity.

On Saturday (September 7), thousands of people took to the streets of Belfast to demand the free, safe, legal, abortion care within reach. The Rally for Choice brought together pro-choice campaigners from across Ireland; the energized and diverse crowd marched through the streets with banners, placards, and purple flares, and culminated in a local square to hear speeches and music.

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, a civil rights activist, former politician, and veteran campaigner, told the crowds: “The people who are gathered here today are not asking people with deeply held convictions to make choices against their conscience, we are asking for the right to make choices ourselves.

“And not to have the theology, ideology, or culture of dominance imposed on our thinking and our choices.”

Back in July, MPs passed the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation Act), which includes a provision that compels the British government to regulate to provide access to abortion. The current Northern Irish laws surrounding abortion are some of the most restrictive in the world, even in cases of rape or incest. People face up to life imprisonment for accessing abortion, and several cases have passed through the courts in recent years. More than 900 people from Northern Ireland travelled to England for an abortion in 2017, a 25 per cent increase from the year before.