Madam, - Mrs Mary Stewart (May 24th) displays a complete inability to see the wood for the trees. Pernickety fussiness over "mandates" and "reports" are wholly irrelevant to the issue of crisis pregnancy - an issue that changes and, often, destroys lives.
Mrs Stewart finds it "most offensive" that public money is used to fund the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. I find it most offensive that there are people in our society who see it almost as a moral duty to deny young (and not so young) women, faced with this terrible choice, the right of access to a full and comprehensive list of their options.
Abortion, like it or not, is one of those options - for some women it is the only option they have. Victims of rape and those who have made unfortunate errors of judgment need the understanding and sympathy of society, not incomplete, biased and moralising information masquerading as advice.
Bickering over the finer points of the CPA's original mandate helps them not one jot, and the fact remains that abortion is but one of the many options presented by the CPA to the women who seek their help. To describe the agency as one which "promotes abortions" is to misrepresent it entirely.
Perhaps Mrs Stewart feels the public money spent on the vital activities of the CPA would be better spent on the construction of a time machine to transport her and her ilk back to the Ireland of 50 years ago? - Yours, etc,
OWEN CORRIGAN,
Blackhall Green,
Dublin 7.