Abortion pills delivered by drone to women in Northern Ireland

A drone sent by women activists successfully delivered abortion pills Tuesday, June 21 in Northern Ireland, where abortion laws are said to violate women's rights.

Following through their success in Poland, pro-choice groups Alliance for Choice, Rosa, Labour Alternative, and Women on Waves collaborated on yet another successful venture of delivering abortion pills through a drone flight.

Women on Waves, a non-profit group of Dutch activists and doctors, reported their success on their website where they indicated and posted a video of the abortion drone that crossed to the Narrow Waters Castle in County Down from the Republic of Ireland. Two women swallowed the pills while the Women on Waves took on an RC speedboat for more pill deliveries.

"Restrictive abortion laws will not keep women from accessing abortion pills, by ship, by mail, through the internet, drone or RC speedboat!" said the group's founder, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts.

In a symbolic act of defiance, Labour Alternative member Courtney Robinson swallowed one of the pills. The groups claim that the drugs delivered, Mifepristone and Misoprostol, are safe and approved by the World Health Organization.

Rosa's Rita Harrold considered the criminalization of abortion in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as "outrageous" and acts of "persecutions."

"As long as politicians in Stormont and the Dáil [the Irish parliament] continue to ignore human rights we will continue our campaign," said Robinson, as quoted by The Guardian.

They also shared their plans of staging a protest that afternoon at the Court of Appeal in Belfast against an appeal lodged by the Attorney General on the high court judge's ruling that the country's abortion laws violated women's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

In November, the high court in Belfast ruled that the country's existing laws on abortion breached the rights of sexual crimes' victims and those pregnant with fetal abnormalities. Only pregnancies considered life-threatening to the mother are allowed to be terminated. Violations of the law could lead to life imprisonment.

Belfast-based Lucy Simpson, who also took the drone-delivered pill, said thousands of women are traumatized while they are forced to travel abroad just to seek abortion. She called the country's abortion law enacted in 1861 as "archaic."

"Which is in the dark ages," Simpson said. "It's like when dinosaurs were on earth. We think it should be changed radically and we can't really wait any longer."