NI 'miscarriage' case

No, she said she hardly knew the flatmates, makes me wonder if she had come to Belfast to work and gone into a flatshare arrangement.

The ages made me wonder if theye are family.

One of them was twenty years older than the poor girl who took the pills. ''i really tried to help her''. God, makes me mad. I would have felt maternal towards a 19 year old girl in trouble at 38. Not self-righteous bullshit about my own alleged distress.

That article hasn't helped their case.

What a coven of heartless bitches. Shame on them.

The flatmates have spoken out, they tried to coerce her into carrying a foetus she didn't want and then apparently, the young woman failed to show what her flatmates deemed to be the correct set of emotions about it all, so they dobbed her in.

Just when you think your flabber was about as ghasted as it's possible to be...

here

It's shocking!!

Northern Ireland is so behind the rest of the United Kingdom! Actually Ireland in general are backwards. If an Irish woman wants an abortion, she has to travel to England/Scotland/Wales to go through with the procedure then they can't speak out about it.

I'm sorry pro-lifers but abortion is a woman's right; also it's her well entitled choice!

Yeh with friends like that, who needs enemies

Very sad that someone goes through the process and then witch hunted by so called friends and the state.

I've had an abortion and I was friends with a lot of Irish people at the time - I confided in one particularly close female friend about the situation and she decided to recruit the rest of them to try to stop me going through with it.

When I still had the procedure they were foul - if I hadn't been subject to their vitriol I never would have believed it possible from them, or anyone else. I can fully believe that girl's housemates would have wanted her arrested for what she did - I think my former friends would have done the same to me if it had been possible.

That poor woman.

It's sad that she was i this situation, it is sadder still that her housemates called the police

I know. I really can't get my head round that.

Precious life are such a bunch of utter arses.

Smyth should have gone down for the harassment charge.

That poor women, having to go through a termination with no medical support and then to be prosecuted for it.

I am currently pregnant with a plannef and wanted child but my pregnancy experience has made me more aware of the impact that an unwanted pregnancy could have on a women. It is so injustice that women in NI do not have autonomy over their own health and life.

It is all over twitter - so sad for a number of reasons, but the law in NI makes my blood boil.

It's sad that she was i this situation, it is sadder still that her housemates called the police.

It is disgusting that a woman (or child) who is British and lives in the UK has no right to a safe medical procedure and that seeking a remedy has given her a criminal record. That if she had got the money together to get to England then she would not be entitled to NHS treatment.

I know abortion support network do a lot of good work but it really is crap that they have to.

So sad. The only consolation is she got a suspended sentence and the judge sounded frustrated by the absurdity of the situation too.

It's an awful story. It is a huge injustice that had she lived in England/Scotland/Wales she would have been able to have the abortion for free via the NHS or one of the other organisations that provide it. Instead she has been criminalised. It is shocking.