Pro-abortion activism will need to continue for up to five more years to ensure all women have access to completely unfettered abortion throughout the island of Ireland, the Abortion Rights Campaign has said.

Speaking at the launch of their seventh annual March for Choice, Dr Mary Favier, who is also incoming head of the Irish College of General Practitioners, said activists are worried about the “chilling” of abortion rights despite the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment. The organisers of the march say they will fight until abortion is completely available in Northern Ireland, and available in the Republic in those few circumstances not already covered by the country’s proposed permissive legislation.

Regarding the ARC’s work to repeal the eight amendment and legislate for abortion, Dr Favier said the effort to change the law accounted for only 10 per cent of the work but the fight for its proper implementation will account for 90 per cent. Asking a country like Ireland to discuss, educate and plan such a drastic change will be “a long journey.”

 “We have to push the message out in the general public. We need to start again developing our stories, our narratives and we need to push, push, push,” she said. “We can’t probably stop pushing for at least two years but probably nearer five.”