R.Sole (a delightful pseudonym),

The 1967 Abortion Act exempted Northern Ireland, where the situation remains as it was prior to the legislation's enactment in the rest of the UK. As a result, hundreds of women travel each year to Liverpool and Manchester for abortions in private clinics, but only if they can afford to do so, since, despite being NHS patients, they cannot be referred by their GPs except in very limited circumstances (e.g. continuation of the pregnancy would endanger the woman's life). Many must have run the gauntlet at the Belfast branch of the FPA - Anti-abortionist activity in Belfast.