Image copyright Facebook Image caption Diana King, Colette Devlin and Kitty O'Kane turned themselves in to police on Monday evening 
 
 Three women have presented themselves to police in Londonderry claiming to having broken Northern Ireland's abortion laws. 
 
 Diana King, 71, Colette Devlin, 68 and Kitty O'Kane, 69, reported to Strand Road police station on Monday evening. 
 
 They gave police a prepared statement saying they had taken delivery of abortion pills for women too afraid to have them delivered to their homes. 
 
 They were questioned before being released pending a report to the PPS. 
 
 A Facebook post, uploaded while the women were being questioned, said they admitted "either providing the abortion pill or taking it themselves". 
 
 Image copyright Facebook Image caption The women were questioned before being cautioned and released 
 
 It continued: "People handing themselves in highlights the unworkability of the law. 
 
 "It lays bare the hypocrisy of the government and pressures the state to scrap it. 
 
 "If the police wish to criminalise one woman for a crime that so many of us have committed, then there can be no exception to the law, we must be arrested as well. 
 
 "Prisons would be filled to the brim if the law was actually enforced." 
 
 A solicitor for the women has told the BBC they were questioned by police officers for about three hours before being released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service. 
 
 Last month, a 21-year-old woman, who bought drugs on the internet to induce a miscarriage, was given a suspended prison sentence. 
 
 She bought two types of drugs online, took them and then miscarried on 12 July 2014. 
 
 The 1967 Abortion Act, which established legal abortion, has never applied in Northern Ireland. 
 
 However, taking drugs to bring on a miscarriage without doctors' consent is still technically an offence anywhere in the UK under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. ||||| Three women have handed themselves into a police station in Derry, stating they have procured and taken illegal abortion pills and requesting that they be prosecuted, in protest at Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws. 
 
 Dozens of pro-choice campaigners gathered at Derry police station in support of the women as they handed themselves in for questioning. The women hope to trigger a trial to showcase the archaic nature of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act – the legislation which makes abortion in Northern Ireland illegal except in extremely rare circumstances. 
 
 Their action was prompted by anger at the prosecution last month of a young woman who bought pills over the internet to induce an abortion. In the first known abortion pill-related prosecution, the 21-year-old woman pleaded guilty to procuring her own abortion by using a poison, and to supplying a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage. She was given a three-month sentence, suspended for a year. Her barrister told the court that had she lived anywhere else in the UK she would not have found herself before the court. A second woman is due to appear in court in Northern Ireland in June, accused of procuring the pills to give to a teenage girl, understood to be her daughter. 
 
 Diana King, Collette Devlin and Kitty O’Kane were accompanied to the police station by their solicitor, each with a written statement setting out why they procured the drugs; they were due to be questioned immediately. 
 
 King, 72, a retired social worker, said she felt compelled to make a stand because she felt so angry about the prosecutions. “It is unforgivable how women are being treated. I am handing myself in to the police to inform them that I have procured the nine-week abortion pills on several occasions,” she said before making her way to the police station. 
 
 King said she would argue that she had not committed any offence because the drugs are not “poisonous substances, but are seen by the World Health Organisation as essential medicines”. “We know that going to jail is a possibility,” she said, “but we will be saying that we don’t think that we have done anything wrong.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Supporters of the three women outside the police station. Photograph: Paul Faith for the Guardian 
 
 Women in Northern Ireland who want to terminate a pregnancy have two options. If they have £1,000-£2,000 to spare they can travel to England or Wales for an abortion; Northern Ireland residents are not eligible for the procedure on the NHS and have to pay for private treatment, as well as the cost of the flight and hotels. Alternatively women at an early stage of pregnancy can buy mifepristone and misoprostol pills online, for around £60; the pills are considered safe and reliable in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and can be supplied by Dutch charities such as Women on Web. 
 
 Women who pay to travel are not breaking any law, but the women who cannot afford treatment in the UK and turn instead to the pills are liable to to be prosecuted, which has led campaigners to argue that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. 
 
 Northern Irish women on abortion: 'people feel they can't trust anyone' Read more 
 
 “The court cases have created a climate of fear. There are women who are nervous about having the pills delivered to their home address, so it’s my name and address on the packet, and we get it to them later,” King said, adding that she saw the action as “absolutely no big deal”. She has actively campaigned for over a decade to have the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act to be extended to Northern Ireland. “If you live here, you have to do this otherwise you would go mad. It is a way of standing in solidarity with the women who are being hauled into court, and showing how shameful it is for the law to go after women in the most vulnerable situations.” 
 
 Over 200 campaigners last year signed an open letter, declaring that they had procured the tablets for themselves or other women, and that they were all willing to be arrested. There has been no move to arrest them, which is why King, along with Devlin and O’Kane, who are both retired teachers, decided to take the proactive step of turning up at the police station. The three women put themselves forward ahead of younger women, because they no longer have jobs that might be affected by a criminal record. 
 
 Goretti Horgan, of the Alliance for Choice, a pro-choice campaign group, said the police had until now appeared reluctant to act on the activists’ admissions that they had broken the law. “The law is being broken on a daily basis, but they don’t want activists on trial. They don’t want to arrest anyone except the isolated, vulnerable women, who they have to arrest because someone has reported them to the police,” she said. She said Northern Ireland’s 155-year-old law was at odds with medical advances. 
 
 King said she expected that the police would send a report to the director of public prosecutions for Northern Ireland, and a decision would be taken at a later stage over whether to prosecute. ||||| Three women handed themselves in at a Northern Irish police station on Monday evening hoping to be arrested for procuring abortion pills, in protest at the country's restrictive laws. 
 
 To the cheers of pro-choice campaigners standing outside, Diana King, 71, Colette Devlin, 68, and Kitty O'Kane, 69, reported to Strand Road police station in Derry and gave officers a statement saying they had received mifepristone or misoprostol pills for women too afraid to have them delivered to their homes. 
 
 The drugs can safely induce an abortion up to nine weeks into a pregnancy, but are illegal to take without a doctor's consent anywhere in the UK. 
 
 In England, Scotland, and Wales, women can be prescribed the drug or receive a surgical abortion on the NHS, but in Northern Ireland all abortion is illegal except when a woman's life is at risk or there is a serious or permanent risk to her mental or physical health. Abortion is not allowed in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities, rape, or incest. 
 
 Northern Irish women can travel to the UK to get an abortion, but are not eligible to receive one on the NHS so need to have £1,000 to £2,000 ($1,500 to $3,000) to spend on travel, accommodation, and private treatment. 
 
 "We do now have one law for the rich and one law for the poor," said King in a statement outside the police station, reported the Derry Journal. "If you can raise the £1,000 to £2,000 to travel to GB [Great Britain] for a legal abortion no-one will bother you, but if you access the nine-week abortion pills online for £60, there's a climate of fear resulting from Stormont [the Northern Ireland Assembly]and the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] hounding women who are already at their most vulnerable. 
 
 "I don't want to believe our politicians will let this continue, but I fear they will, so it is up to us to keep campaigning." 
 
 Related: We Traveled On Board the Irish 'Abortion Bus' That's Giving Illegal Pills to Women 
 
 The retired social worker, who has been campaigning for years to have the UK's 1967 Abortion Act extended to Northern Ireland, told the Guardian she would tell the authorities she had not committed any offence because the drugs are not "poisonous substances, but are seen by the World Health Organisation as essential medicines." The women knew going to jail was a possibility, she said, "but we will be saying that we don't think that we have done anything wrong." 
 
 A Facebook post uploaded while the women were being questioned, reported by the BBC, said "People handing themselves in highlights the unworkability of the law. It lays bare the hypocrisy of the government and pressures the state to scrap it. 
 
 "If the police wish to criminalize one woman for a crime that so many of us have committed, then there can be no exception to the law, we must be arrested as well... Prisons would be filled to the brim if the law was actually enforced." 
 
 The women were questioned for about three hours before being released pending a report to the Public Prosecution office, said the BBC. 
 
 Last June more than 200 people signed an open letter stating they had either taken abortion pills or helped women access abortion pills in Northern Ireland, and they were willing to be arrested. 
 
 Police took no action, which is why King, Devlin, and O'Kane have stepped forward, said the Guardian — seeing themselves as good candidates to take proactive action as they no longer have jobs which could be adversely impacted by a criminal record. 
 
 There were 16 abortions performed in Northern Irish hospitals last year according to Stormont government figures. More than 800 Northern Irish women traveled to the UK for the procedure, according to statistics from Britain's Department of Health. 
 
 Follow Miriam Wells on Twitter: @missmbc 
 
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– Three senior citizens in Northern Ireland handed themselves over to police and asked to be prosecuted Monday in protest of that country's abortion laws, the Guardian reports. Abortion is largely illegal in Northern Ireland due to a 155-year-old law. That includes in instances of rape and incest, according to Vice. With dozens of protesters there in support, 72-year-old Diana King, 68-year-old Colette Devlin, and 69-year-old Kitty O'Kane turned themselves in for either using abortion-inducing pills themselves or helping other women get them, the BBC reports. “It is unforgivable how women are being treated,” King tells the Guardian. More than 200 other women signed an open letter admitting to the same crimes and stating their willingness to be arrested. The retired teachers and social worker were spurred to action by the prosecution last month of a 21-year-old woman for buying abortion pills online. A second woman is due in court in the near future for allegedly buying the pills for her teen daughter. "If the police wish to criminalize one woman for a crime that so many of us have committed, then there can be no exception to the law, we must be arrested as well,” a statement from the three women reads, per the BBC. Northern Irish women in need of an abortion can either spend thousands of dollars to travel elsewhere in the UK to have one legally or buy the pills for considerably less money online and risk prosecution. Protesters say this creates a different set of laws for poor women. Devlin, O'Kane, and King were questioned and released Monday. Authorities have yet to decide if they'll be prosecuted.