Obtaining an abortion in the United States has become increasingly difficult in the last few years as clinics have closed and restrictions have increased across the country. But abortion access isn't just an American problem, and in Ireland, it remains nearly impossible. Mara Clarke, director of theAbortion Support Network in Great Britain, tells Cosmopolitan.com about the lack of legal abortion accessible in Ireland and how she helps the most desperate pregnant people obtain financial support to travel and pay for an abortion outside their home country.

I am the founder and director of the Abortion Support Network, which is based in London although we don't really have an office. We are a tiny, almost entirely volunteer-run charity that helps women living in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man access safe and legal abortions. I'm American, and I moved to the United Kingdom with my then-partner. I had been working with a group in the States providing practical support [for accessing abortion services] so I was looking around to see if anyone was doing similar work here, and I was told "Well, there used to be a group of Irish women helping Irish women, but that's not a problem anymore."

First, I got involved in campaigning. I was on the board of theAbortion Rights U.K. campaign, and we helped organize an abortion speak-out that was held in the House of Commons in 2007, which was kind of cool. But campaigns weren't really my thing — they are very, very needed work, but just not the work I'm best at. Every year, the Department of Health would release these statements saying, "X number of women are traveling over from Ireland and Northern Ireland to access abortions," and I was like, "Oh, if 5,000 women a year are coming over, that means that there are 500 or 50 or 10 or even five who can't come over because they don't have the money." So we thought we would see what we could do.

In England, Scotland, and Wales, abortion is free on the National Health Service. Yes, that's free. Let me say it again — free. Abortion is free on the National Health Service up to 24 weeks. Obviously there are little issues, like there are certain parts of the United Kingdom where there is not as much provision. But it's free. You pay nothing. Because of the1967 Abortion Act, you are allowed to have an abortion but you have to have a reason for it, and everyone ticks sort of the same reason for it, which is "mental hardship" or something like that.

In Ireland, you can only have an abortion if you can prove that having the baby will make you die, either by having the baby or by killing yourself. But we saw how that law was put into practice with theMiss Y case, where a woman was on a hunger strike and tried to kill herself, and instead of letting her have an abortion, they delayed her until she was 25 weeks pregnant and then gave this just-turned-18-year-old refugee pregnant as a result of rape a cesarean section. So that's how that law is working out.

And then in Northern Ireland, you can have the abortion if you can prove that having the baby will pose a serious and permanent risk to the life and health of the mother, but there are no guidelines to what that means. There have been calls in Northern Ireland to allow abortion in cases of fatal fetal anomalies and sexual violence — rape or incest — but those have all pretty much been shot down. There is an abortion clinic in Northern Ireland, but it can only perform abortions on those who can prove that a pregnancy poses a serious and permanent risk to their life and their health, and costs 430 pounds, and they only do early medical abortions.

That's pretty much where it's at. It is technically legal if you can prove you are going to die, but even then it's still probably easier to fly to England. After