Madam, - How right Richard Keane is (January 10th) to remind us of Mr Justice Niall McCarthy's 1992 rebuke to Irish politicians for denying women safe and legal abortion in Ireland.
The current Minister for Health, Mary Harney, was not afraid to speak her mind at the time. She asserted that "the option of terminating a pregnancy should be available to Irish women in Ireland" in cases "where a woman's life is at risk, where her health is seriously at risk, or if somebody has been raped or the subject of a sexual crime such as incest. It is also the lesser of two evils where somebody may take their own life."
Why the silence today on this important women's health issue? - Yours, etc,
SANDRA McAVOY (Cork Women's Right to Choose Group), Ballincurrig Park, Cork.
Madam, - I agree with Richard Keane that it is scandalous the Government has not clarified the constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion by way of legislation 15 years after the judgment in the X Case.
In support of legislation to legalise abortion he states that in a recent survey 64 per cent of those polled support abortion in certain circumstances. It may seem facetious to say that a poll of the as yet unborn would probably yield a different result. How, why or when a person is conceived should not determine their inalienable human right to life.
It is worth remembering that abortion is not a victimless tragedy. While Mr Keane reminds us that the 15 women who travel to Britain every day are mothers, wives, girlfriends, etc, he forgets that 15 individuals do not return: sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, grandchildren. To continue to ignore their plight is inexcusable. - Yours,
MARK DALY, Castlefield Woods, Clonsilla, Dublin 15.