Attending the APPG for SRH in Westminster

As an organisation, we rarely engage with the British government (though many of our members do for work or as private individuals) due to the injustices wreaked on our communities by that government. On Wednesday, we attended the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health - who were commemorating five years of decriminalisation in the north.

We wanted to be at the table to show gratitude to the committed doctors providing abortion care in the north and to talk about the situation on the ground particularly in counties Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh. We know these counties are so often not in the conversation.

We also wanted to ask anyone in the room - MPs or those with the ears of MPs - to demand the allowance of aid into Gaza and the West Bank and to implore the UK government to withdraw all support from Israeli warmongering, to impose sanctions, and to work to lobby other western powers to do the same.

After queuing alongside a statue of Oliver Cromwell, our activist Maeve was harassed by security for wearing a Shout Your Abortion t-shirt and was forced to wear it inside out before security would let her enter the House of Lords.

The words "fund abortion, not war" are clearly anathema to the British government.

Maeve, outside Westminster.

We raised all the issues we wanted to and are grateful for the solidarity received from people in the room. We are grateful to Amelia from SYA for sending us the t-shirts which support US abortion orgs who have been defunded due to their support of Palestine.

Solidarity to those groups DC Abortion Fund (DCAF) Access Reproductive Care-Southeast, Inc. Midwest Access Coalition Abortion Fund of Ohio and solidarity with Palestine forever.