Sir, - Your editorial comments on the results of The Irish Times/ MRBI poll on abortion clearly cross the line between opinion and propaganda, as is shown by your statement that the pro-life cause is based only on religious beliefs and moral absolutism. Handy slogans, sir, that belie the truth. For the truth is that the only references to religious arguments in the abortion debate have emanated from your own esteemed and hallowed columns. None of the pro-life groups has based its arguments on religious grounds.
The Irish Times, it seems, is actually behind the times. You have failed to grasp the reality that there is now a generation of young people who can approach the abortion issue, and indeed all moral issues, from the perspective of reason, not rite.
There are no medical indications for abortion. There are no true philosophical arguments which can justify the claim that some human lives are less valuable than of others. These are not statements of "moral absolutism" but rather statements of fact.
Abortion is not a religious issue, and your repeated attempts to make it so clearly indicate that you are afraid to meet the pro-life arguments on an intellectual basis. - Yours, etc.,
Monkstown, Co Dublin.