Madam, - When the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the X case on March 5th, 1992, Mr Justice Niall McCarthy delivered a scathing critique of the legislative branch of government. Referring to the 1983 constitutional amendment on abortion, he said: "The failure by the legislature to enact the appropriate legislation is no longer unfortunate, it is inexcusable. What are pregnant women to do? What are the parents of a pregnant girl under age to do? What are the medical profession to do?"
Fifteen years later, there is still no legislation; but there are, as usual, thousands of Irish women travelling to the UK every year to have safe, legal abortions, having taken one of the most difficult decisions they are ever likely to face in secrecy and often in shame.
Even that option was denied to Irish women until 1967, when abortion was legalised in Britain. A list of the desperate remedies for unwanted pregnancies in the absence of safe abortion includes: hot baths, gin, knitting needles, pennyroyal, castor oil, quinine, skipping, jumping from a height, household detergents and ergot of rye - almost all useless and some dangerous.
Surely it is now time for abortion to be made, safe and legal in Ireland. The most recent opinion poll from the Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships 2006 indicates that 64 per cent of the public support abortion in certain circumstances. Let us remember that 15 women every day travel to Britain to obtain safe and legal abortions. They are our mothers, our wives, our girlfriends, our sisters, our daughters and our friends. To continue to ignore their concerns, is, I submit, inexcusable. - Yours, etc,
RICHARD KEANE, Harty Place, Dublin 8.