PRESS RELEASE: You’re pregnant. You need an abortion. What do you do?
What would you do if you were pregnant?
If you couldn’t get the abortion you need in the country you were living in?
Do you go to your GP or look for information online?
Confide in friends or keep it a secret?
Abortion Support Network (ASN) invites people to find out in their new interactive online story.
This International Safe Abortion Day (28 September), Abortion Support Network wants to truly immerse people in the obstacles faced by people who need an abortion outside of legal provision. To do this, we’ve created “Saoirse’s Story,” an interactive online story that allows users to go through the experience of a woman in the Republic of Ireland who discovers she is more than 12 weeks pregnant and must raise the funds to travel for an abortion. During a global pandemic.
Designed as a “choose your own adventure”, the feature gives users the opportunity to decide what to do at each step of the process. Do you go to your GP or look for information online? Take the ferry or a plane? Confide in friends or keep your pregnancy a secret? Have the abortion or continue the pregnancy? Each decision taken in the moment leads you down a different path.
ASN founder Mara Clarke said:
“ASN has been helping women and pregnant people travel to access abortion care since 2009. We have spoken to more than 6,000 women, couples and families facing unintended pregnancies living in countries where legal abortion was not possible.
“As a grassroots charity funded almost entirely by regular donors and other individuals, we know our supporters are aware of the obstacles faced by those in this situation. We wanted to find a way to bring this understanding to a wider group of people and think sharing ‘Saoirse’s Story’ will bring the reality of bad abortion laws to people in a very visceral way.
“ASN has been helping people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man access abortions since 2009, and in Malta, Gibraltar and Poland since 2019. We decided to focus on Ireland as a number of people believe that issues with accessing abortion in Ireland disappeared once the 8th amendment was repealed in May 2018 and provision began in January 2019, but this has not been the case. The Covid-19 pandemic adds even more layers of obstacles to those who need to travel for abortion care.
“We hope that ‘Saoirse’s Story’ has the ability to truly immerse people in the obstacles faced by people who need an abortion outside of legal provision.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors.
- You can experience Saoirse’s Story here: https://bit.ly/SaoirsesStory. Saoirse is a composite of people who have contacted Abortion Support Network’s helpline. Every one of her options, decisions, and outcomes is one experienced by at least one living, breathing human.
- Abortion Support Network (ASN) www.asn.org.uk is a charity that provides financial assistance, confidential, non-judgmental information and accommodation in volunteer homes to people forced to travel from Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Malta, Gibraltar and Poland and pay privately for abortions in England. The cost ranges from £400 to £2000 or more depending on circumstance and stage of pregnancy. While many organisations campaign for much needed law reform, ASN is the only group providing those travelling for abortions with the thing they need most immediately: money. ASN is a proud member of the Abortion Without Borders initiative.
- This fabulous campaign was created for ASN by Digital Designer and Consultant Jean O’Brien. www.jeanobrien.com