Abortion activists want ‘yes or no’ referendum

Pro-choice campaigners have called for a straightforward ‘yes or no’ referendum on abortion next spring after throwing down the gauntlet to officials by illegally bringing abortion pills over the border.

In a move echoing the 1971 ‘condom train’ campaign, left- wing TDs and pro-choice groups travelled from Dublin to Belfast to purchase the pills, which are outlawed in the Republic except in rare circumstances authorised by doctors.

The 30-strong group left Connolly Station amid a wave of publicity at 9.30am. It included Socialist Party TDs Ruth Coppinger, Joe Higgins, and Paul Murphy, People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett, the Socialist Party’s reproductive rights group Rosa, and Action for Choice.