'Three Families’: An Insight into Northern Ireland’s Restrictive Abortion Laws
15 June 2021
The backdrop – three women, three different pregnancies, all seeking an abortion in Northern Ireland. A young married woman, carrying a much wanted pregnancy which is found to be incompatible with life after birth, is told she must carry this pregnancy to term. A mother found to have helped her teenage daughter procure an abortion for a crisis pregnancy, is prosecuted under Articles 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. An older woman with significant mental health history, pregnant for the first time after years of infertility, is on the edge of a psychological breakdown on finding out her pregnancy is incompatible with life after birth, and is offered no local abortion care.
These experiences could be mistaken for occurring decades or even a century ago. Astoundingly, this is Northern Ireland in the 21st century. BBC1’s Three Families offers an insight into Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws and the dire position thousands of women in Northern Ireland faced and endured when seeking access to abortion. For many women – including the 300+ who travelled to England for care during 2020 – this inequality endures today.
Gwyneth Hughes, screenwriter of Three Families, based her programme on interviews from three real-life women whose lives had been significantly affected by Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws. Three Families also documents the grassroots campaign that has been ongoing for decades trying to give the women in Northern Ireland the same reproductive rights as those in mainland UK. Through the narrative of personal stories, the plight women face, the attitudes and public opinion towards abortion and the fight for liberalisation of the law are told while side-stepping away from political angles.
In the first part of the two-part dramatisation we are introduced to two of the three main characters. Hannah (Amy James-Kelly) is a young, married woman eagerly hoping to become pregnant for the first time. She and her husband appear to have been trying for a baby for several months with no initial success. They both dream of the future which includes one or more healthy, happy children.
Hannah finds out she is pregnant to the delight of herself and her husband. Excitement soon turns to grief and despair, however, as they discover that the baby Hannah is carrying has a fatal fetal abnormality. On seeking an abortion Hannah is informed by a medical professional that she cannot have one in Northern Ireland. She also receives misinformation about the gestational limit for seeking an abortion in England and is left with no choice but to endure the trauma of having to go through with labour and birth at term of her stillborn daughter.
The second character Theresa (Sinéad Keenan) is a mother of two children – a 15-year-old girl in the middle of sitting her GCSEs and a 1-year-old child. Theresa has just returned to part-time work at her friend’s hairdressing shop after her maternity leave and is managing an emotional teenager and a busy household.
Theresa’s daughter confides in her that she is pregnant with a crisis pregnancy. Her ex-partner is controlling and abusive and she wishes to sever ties with him and continue with her education. Continuing with the pregnancy would make that impossible to do. Against her religious belief and despite her overall uneasiness, Theresa orders abortifacients online and supports her daughter in taking them. This comes to the attention of the local general practitioner who by law is required to report the mother and daughter to the police. As a result, Theresa is charged under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – a law enacted before women had the vote – for procuring an abortion.
The second part of Three Families introduces the third story which involves Rosie (Genevieve O’Reilly), a woman who again, on paper, qualifies for an abortion due to the diagnosis of Edwards’ syndrome (trisomy 18) in her pregnancy and the high risk of a catastrophic effect on her mental health if she is required to deliver a baby that will die before or shortly after birth. But Rosie too is denied an abortion by her doctor and fails to meet the extremely high bar put in place in order to procure an abortion on psychiatric grounds.
We then follow Rosie, in the later stages of her pregnancy – having been told that her baby has died in the womb – and having to wait several days before being induced. Rosie roams slowly through a shop in a trance-like state shopping for the clothes in which she will bury her child. We watch Rosie break down in heart-wrenching sobs when she admits this to the shop assistant.
Each story profiled in Three Families is as heart-breaking as it is shocking, compounded by the fact that this is happening now in the UK. The only choice offered to women who wished to end their pregnancy was to carry their pregnancy to term. We see medical professionals bound by a restrictive law that threatened them with prosecution should they help these desperate women. Those wanting or needing an abortion had to travel to England at their own expense. This is highlighted during the drama when Rosie is secretively told by a nurse “Just go to the mainland love. It’s what all the women do, what we’ve always done”.
Towards the end of Three Families, we again meet Hannah who has turned her experience into positive action by joining a pro-choice activist group in Belfast. Attending a meeting with Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Women and Equalities Select Committee in January 2019, Hannah recounts how women in Northern Ireland are only granted the right to choose what happened after their babies were born. Hannah reiterates this to the committee stating “…only then, when she was no longer in my womb. Only then was I allowed to decide”.
Three Families has shown that although abortion may be required for a crisis pregnancy, even the most wanted pregnancies do not always go to plan. Each story demonstrates the reality for countless women in Northern Ireland, and unfortunately that reality still exists today. Even with the decriminalisation of abortion in October 2019, women in Northern Ireland are still being denied their lawful right to have an abortion because the Health Minister will not commission services. With the Secretary of State Brandon Lewis now attempting to commission services via Westminster, it is hoped that finally women in all of the UK will have access to free, safe, legal and local abortion healthcare.
[Three Families (2 x 1-hour episodes) is available on BBC iPlayer until February 2022.]
Reviewed by Laura McLaughlin and Leanne Morgan, BSACP Northern Ireland Representatives
Note on the Authors
Dr Laura McLaughlin is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist working in Belfast, where she is the Trust Service Lead for Abortion. Laura is also Co-Chair for Doctors for Choice Northern Ireland (DFCNI) and is a member of the Northern Ireland Abortion and Contraception Taskgroup (NIACT).
Dr Leanne Morgan is a Locum Consultant working within the Sexual and Reproductive Health Service in Belfast Trust. Leanne is also Co-Chair of Doctors for Choice Northern Ireland (DFCNI).