Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - 08:52 PANORAMAnewsdesk

In the two months since the postponement of the Referendum, No More Shame (NMS) has been concerned to learn of a dramatic increase in calls from Gibraltar to Abortion Support Network (ASN.)

The first six weeks of the pandemic lockdown alone, saw an increase of 200% over the previous six weeks and ASN have reported that since the pandemic started they had heard from half the total number of people from Gibraltar that contacted them in the entirety of 2019.

"It is clear that women and girls in Gibraltar have experienced unnecessary personal anguish as a result of lockdowns across Europe and the inability to travel to another jurisdiction. It is also now patently evident that the notion that there is no need for a change to the law on the basis that abortion services are available (at a cost) in Spain and the UK, no longer holds any water, not that it ever did. For the first time in going on 4 decades women in Gibraltar have had absolutely no legal access to abortion services, if only in another country," said a No More Shame statement.