Women take abortion pills in Northern Ireland protest

LONDON (AP) — Abortion rights campaigners swallowed what they said were abortion pills outside a Belfast court on Thursday, as pressure grows to ease Northern Ireland's strict ban on terminating pregnancies.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. in which abortion is illegal in all but exceptional cases. Last week, the neighboring Republic of Ireland voted to remove a constitutional ban on abortions, putting pressure on the north to follow suit.

Campaigners used a small robot to distribute pills outside Belfast's Laganside courts complex, before three women flanked by others dressed in...