This Is Why The Cast Of Derry Girls Marched On Westminster Today

A procession of women carrying suitcases, led by Nicola Coughlan, who plays teenager Clare Devlin in the popular E4 series Derry Girls, and Siobhan McSweeney who plays Sister Michael, the nun who rules over the girls at a Catholic school in Derry, represented the estimated 28 women a week who travel from Northern Ireland to England to access abortion.

'As ridiculous as it is for two people off the telly to be here drawing attention to this issue, the pressure needs to be put on these ministers to do something', Coughlan told Grazia during the march, which was organised by human rights charity Amnesty International.

Unlike in the rest of the UK, where women have been able to access abortion legally since 1967, abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland unless the mother’s life is at risk.

In the Republic of Ireland, abortion was recently legalised following a referendum where people overwhelmingly supported the change, and earlier this year the neighbouring Isle of Man also overturned its longstanding ban on the procedure making the six counties of Northern Ireland the last place in the region where abortion is illegal.

'It’s an issue that every woman has had to talk about,' McSweeney said. Since joining Amnesty International’s campaign to legislate for abortion rights in Northern Ireland, the stories she has heard about women who have had to travel for abortion have reminded McSweeney just how prevalent the issue is.

'It’s not a large country and over 900 people in 2017 accessed these basic health services [in England], she said. “It’s a woman’s issue and health issue and a human rights issue.'

While a large number of women will travel from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion, many more will illegally buy abortion pills online in order to have an abortion at home. An increasing number of abortion pills being seized at customs in Northern Ireland suggest the number of women in this situation is on the rise.

'Women are being treated like criminals in their own country,' Coughlan added.

At the end of the march, Coughlan and McSweeney delivered a petition of 32,000 signatures, asking the Westminster government to legislate to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland, where the devolved government has not functioned for over two years following a collapse in the local power-sharing agreement.

'This is an issue of neglect,' McSweeney said. 'It might seem like a silly stunt with suitcases but it is drawing attention to the fact that people are incredibly ignorant, including the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley,' she continued. 'If we can raise the awareness that people have about the North, that’s all we can do.'

Joining the two actresses, and a group of abortion rights activists on the march, were MPs including Labour’s Diana Johnson, who has won support for legislation that could see abortion legalised in Northern Ireland, and independent MP Heidi Allen, formerly of the Conservative Party, who has also been outspoken on the issue in parliament.

'I’ve had an abortion myself, and I know it was absolute hell, and you’re in a mess,' Allen told us. 'The thought of having to get on a plane to make that happen isn’t how we should be looking after women.'

She believed it was not just her duty as an MP, but her duty as a woman to fight for abortion rights in Northern Ireland.

'This is standing up for every single woman in the UK,' she continued. 'It’s wrong that we have access to these services on this side of the water but 28 women a week are having to travel at one of the most terrifying times in their life. It’s just an unacceptable situation.'

Labour’s Stella Creasy, who in 2017 won funding for Northern Irish women to have NHS abortions, and in some cases, pay for their travel, was also on the march. Creasy, who has made repeated attempts in parliament to win abortion rights for Northern Ireland, blames the DUP, the anti-abortion Northern Irish party that props up Theresa May’s government, for the blocking them.

'Women of NI deserve better than the treatment they’ve had from Theresa May,' Creasy said. 'It is not acceptable that only the rights of [DUP leader] Arlene Foster are considered at Westminster.'

But Creasy is not about to give up. 'Basically we’re saying that women in Northern Ireland are second class citizens when it comes to their basic human rights and as another woman in the UK I don’t accept that,' she added.

'However hard they make it, we will continue to fight and we will be successful. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when'.