Healthworker and pro choice campaigner Majorie Trimble is no fan of the argument that a Northern Ireland pro choice vote might destabilise the peace process.

Fellow campaigner Annie Campbell made the same point at the 7 October pro choice lobby. Why are women's rights - and women's health - so often sacrificed at the high altar of male politics?

'It’s not about whether you agree with abortion or not,' Trimble says. 'It’s about a woman’s right to choose. They're two different issues. Everyone can have their own personal thoughts on abortion - whether they agree on it, or not. That's not important in the reality. It's about the woman’s right to choose.'

Goretti Horgan says many people in Northern Ireland understand that reality. She sees the proof of that in the money that the pro choice movement is able to raise for women who need to travel to England. They get that money from local communities, which makes sense - they're hardly going to get corporate sponsors, after all.

'This is the thing that gives lie to the argument that nobody in Northern Ireland wants abortion rights. Actually, whole working class communities take up collections to get women over, because people know what the reality is.

'I mean, some woman who is like a lone parent with two or three kids, and she's just getting her life back together and she gets pregnant again...

'People aren’t stupid. They’re going to say, you know… we get like £20 from people with a good job, and a tenner from people like with not such a good job, and then a fiver from people on a benefit and you add it all together...'

Trimble also attends church regularly.

Photo: Majorie Trimble, Westminster, October 8 2008.