BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The first abortion clinic on the island of Ireland opened Thursday in Belfast, sparking protests by conservatives from both the Catholic and Protestant sides of Northern Ireland.
The Marie Stopes family planning center will offer the abortion pillto women who are less than nine weeks pregnant — but only if doctors determine they’re at risk of death or long-term health damage from their pregnancy.
That’s the law in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, where abortion is otherwise illegal.
But more than 200 protesters opposed to abortion under any circumstances gathered outside the central Belfast clinic hours ahead of its opening Thursday, waving placards reading “Keep Ireland abortion free.”
And Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin wrote to lawmakers, who broadly oppose abortion, offering his help if they investigate the clinic’s operations. Larkin said he could order the clinic to be closed only if evidence emerged of “serious criminal conduct” there.
Protesters demanded that the clinic be shut down regardless, lest it become a beachhead for expanding abortion rights in Northern Ireland, the only corner of the United Kingdom that has not legalized abortion on demand.
“We’re in 2012. Women’s health is not in danger. Women are not dying because they cannot get abortions,” said Bernadette Smyth, the Protestant leader of a Belfast anti-abortion group called Precious Life.
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