Madam, - On points of accuracy, I would like to comment on Louise Caffrey's letter (October 30th).
Ms Caffrey holds that a liberal abortion law means less abortion, that Holland has the most liberal law in the world and the lowest number of abortions and that the illegality of abortion in Ireland results in Irishwomen having later abortions than residents of England and Wales.
England and Wales also have a very liberal abortion law. The latest Statistical Bulletin Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2006 reports 193,737 abortions on residents of England and Wales a rate of 18.3 per 1,000 females ages 15-44.
The comparative figure for Ireland is 5,042, a rate of 5.2 per 1,000 Irish residents aged 15-44. It does not require advanced mathematics to see that the abortion rate of our near neighbour is over three times higher than the Republic's.
Some 89 per cent of residents of England and Wales had abortions under 13 weeks gestation compared with 87 per cent from the Republic, a very slight difference.
However, when one considers the difference in numbers involved, it means that 655 Irish women have later abortions, compared to 21,311 residents of England and Wales.
Holland has very liberal and confused laws on abortion. However, Holland's most recent figure (2005) was 28,738 or about 15.3 per cent of live births, compared to Ireland's 7.8 per cent and England and Wales's 27.7 per cent.
Holland's abortions have been rising steadily. It certainly does not have "the lowest abortion rate in the EU" as Ms Caffrey states. Nor is it even second or third lowest. - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'REILLY, Stoneview Place, Dún Laoghaire.