The DUP has said Northern Ireland will not be “bullied or bounced” into changing its abortion laws after feminist activists openly flouted the law by swallowing abortion pills in a public protest outside Laganside courts in Belfast on Thursday.

Even though Northern Ireland is set to be the only part of the UK or Ireland to not have liberal abortion laws, South Down MLA Jim Wells said it was “entirely our right under the devolution settlement to make our own decisions on that”.

“The Assembly discussed this in detail on February 10th, 2016 and after a lengthy debate decided we did not need to change the laws in Northern Ireland and that is where we stand. And we are not going to be bullied or bounced into changing our laws because of what happened in the Irish Republic,” he said.