In an emotional parliamentary debate on liberalising abortion laws in Northern Ireland, two women MPs have bravely shared their own abortion stories.

Conservative MP Heidi Allen said it was an “incredibly hard decision” to have a termination, but her pregnancy was causing daily seizures and leaving her unable to control her body, according to The Independent.

Allen urged fellow MPs to seize a “window of opportunity” to change Northern Ireland’s tough abortion laws after Ireland voted to repeal the eighth amendment.

Allen continued: “I was ill when I made the incredibly hard decision to have a termination. I was having seizures every day, I wasn’t even able to control my own body, let alone care for a new life.”

The MP for South Cambridgeshire then questioned if it would be right for Westminster to intervene: “As a woman who believes passionately in equality, in choice and an individual’s right to determine their own destiny, and as a woman elected to be the MP for South Cambridgeshire in the 21st century, who stood yesterday to support [Stella Creasy’s] request for this debate, because she is standing up for all the women in the UK, but mostly because I have been there, I am making it my business.”

MPs share own personal abortion stories during Northern Ireland debate