The Internet continues to change our lives in ways we could not have dreamt of. This week it was revealed women in Ireland can have an initial on-line consultation for an abortion with a British agency for about 50 pence. All those arguments heard only five years ago against access to information are redundant.
Abortion troubles us. When I was 19 I joined the pro-life group at Queen's University. I could say I had been unsettled by a friend's use of the RU486 abortion pill almost as a form of contraception. In truth, I was searching for a measure of moral certainty at a time when I was wrestling with my sexual identity.
Three years later a Catholic friend said he and his girlfriend wanted to borrow some money. I knew from his tone and expression that it wasn't for a crate of beer.
I didn't ask questions. I knew they were broke and that getting the family involved wasn't an option. I gave him the money. It was their decision. They were a pretty stable couple as student romances go. There was no question in my mind that he was forcing the issue: he wasn't that kind of guy. The following week I bumped into his girlfriend and asked if she was OK. She looked at me earnestly and just said: "Thanks, Steven. We owe you." No more was ever said about it.
That was the one and only time I have been confronted by the abortion dilemma. It wasn't one of the so-called "hard cases". It was a social abortion. They were in their exam year and didn't have money for an abortion, let alone to bring up a child.
I have many regrets in life, but lending that money is not one of them. My attitude to abortion had been finally changed by the experience of facing the issue head-on.
It is all the more disappointing, therefore, that in spite of having negotiated one of the most radical and progressive political agreements ever, judging by last month's Assembly debate on abortion, Northern Ireland's politicians have emerged from the experience remarkably unscathed.
Take Seamus Close of the Alliance Party, for instance. "Liberal", "non-sectarian" and "moderate" are terms most often used to describe Alliance. Could it really have been the Alliance Party's deputy leader, therefore, who described pro-choice arguments as "murderous"? Could the same individual be responsible for comparing abortion in the circumstances of rape with a return to terrorist violence? Sadly so.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party - reflect on those words - was no better. In fact, it was worse. Unlike Alliance it imposed a party whip in favour of the DUP's motion to prevent the extension of the 1967 Act. Any secular Northern Protestants of a progressive disposition who apply to join the British Labour Party are referred to SDLP headquarters. Is it any wonder few pursue the matter?
Therapeutic abortion does take place in Northern Ireland, most often to protect the mother's life. Some doctors will offer an abortion in other cases, such as congenital deformity. That there are no abortions taking place in Ireland is a myth, therefore.
Given this situation one might have thought the Sinn Fein Health Minister, Bairbre de Brun, would have been in the Assembly to provide guidance on the position in the hospitals. But abortion highlights the contradiction between Sinn Fein's supposed radicalism and the views of many of its supporters and American backers.
She stayed out of the chamber all day.
There were honourable exceptions during the debate. The Ulster Unionist Party having opted for a free vote, Joan Carson, the no-nonsense MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, threw her weight behind the 1967 Act, arguing that the motion only salved the consciences of those who won't tackle the issue of unwanted pregnancy.
Referring to the 2,000 Northern Irish women who make the trip to England each year, she was emphatic: "Those women should not have to leave home or have to leave Northern Ireland, and they should not be made to feel like criminals, having to hide their identities; they should not be ostracised by society."
Here was a woman representing rural Ulster, a leading light in the Mothers' Union, who, despite not being a feminist, was able to cut through the "confusion" that afflicted Monica McWilliams of the Women's Coalition and take a courageous stand for women's autonomy: "The responsibility for an abortion - or a termination - lies primarily with the woman and not with the State."
The Democratic Unionist Party did have an argument of sorts. The proportion of abortions in Northern Ireland is lower than in England and Wales. The cost of the operation, which is free to every other British woman, is a deterrent. But it leaves unresolved why nurses in Liverpool have to deal with the problem created in Belfast.
Perhaps the most distasteful aspect of the debate was the number of anti-abortion speakers who welcomed the opportunity to find common cause with representatives of the other religious tradition. It was as though denying rights to women was a positive contribution to the process of healing and reconciliation. And how those who have pledged to wreck the Assembly because it weakens the British link enjoyed using it to pursue their objective of keeping Northern Ireland a place apart.
Many such debates on difficult social questions have been promised by the DUP. It seems that rather than producing a new climate of tolerance, the agreement and the Assembly it provided for will act to ossify Northern Ireland society. Peace comes at a price.