Forced to fly to England

CAMPAIGN Mum Sarah Sarah Ewart was given the worst possible news at her 19-week scan. Her baby’s brain and skull had not developed properly. It would die before it was born or moments afterwards.

Yet Sarah and her husband Jason were told they would not be allowed an abortion.

Sarah, from Belfast, says: “The consultant banged her files on the desk and said, ‘I’m not going to prison for anyone’.”

The doctors could not even offer Sarah advice for fear of being prosecuted, so she searched the Yellow Pages and consulted the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association.

On leaving the clinic, she was chased down the road by protesters screaming abuse at her.

Sarah flew to England for an abortion in October 2013, taking out a loan to cover the £2,100 cost.

Outraged at the way she was treated, Sarah contacted all 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, urging them to change the law. She also met Jim Wells, the DUP Health Minister at the time.

Sarah says: “He said I had destroyed a baby that would have survived – that the consultants get these diagnoses wrong. I was in tears. I couldn’t speak.”

Sarah is working with Amnesty International, which is campaigning to change the abortion law in Northern Ireland, and now has a healthy son, one-year-old Jacob.