Three Families writer ‘amazed’ at Northern Ireland abortion debate: ‘I wanted to be fair to both sides’

The writer of a new drama that focuses on abortion in Northern Ireland has said she was ‘amazed’ to discover how many women travel to England to undergo the procedure.

Three Families is a two-part series starring Sinead Keenan set between 2013 and 2019. It tells the true story of three women and their families in a time when abortion was illegal.

Writer Gwyneth Hughes was particularly shocked by the facts her research uncovered because she lives in a country where abortion is legal.

‘So when executive producer Sue Hogg first asked me to write Three Families, I was amazed to discover that thousands of women from Northern Ireland still had to get on planes and ferries and go to England in search of terminations they could not access at home,’ she explained.

‘I arrived in Belfast to begin my research at the height of a ferocious campaign, which culminated in the Westminster Government controversially imposing legal change when Assembly was suspended.’

Abortion laws in the country were liberalised by MPs at Westminster in 2019 at a time when power-sharing – when the First and Deputy First Ministers, one unionist and one nationalist, have equal powers – was collapsed.

New regulations came into operation a year ago and, while individual health trusts are offering services on an ad hoc basis, the Department of Health has yet to centrally commission the services on a region-wide basis.

However, in the absence of fully commissioned services being available, women from Northern Ireland are still travelling to England to access abortions.

‘I did not want to write a political film, or a campaigning one,’ Gwyneth said.

‘I wanted to be fair to both sides – to all sides, in fact, as in the world of real-life there are always more than two!

‘Classically, the abortion debate is presented as two opposing and immoveable camps – “pro-life” and “pro-choice”. But as I discovered, it’s not as simple as that.

‘What about people like our character Theresa, who thought she was against abortion until her own 15-year-old daughter fell pregnant?’

Three Families stars Little Boy Blue actress Sinead, alongside Bloodlands star Lola Petticrew, Gentleman Jack’s Amy James-Kelly and The Dry’s Genevieve O’Reilly.

Three Families begins on May 10 on BBC One.

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