Sir, – Dr Pauline Conroy’s article (Opinion, March 8th) answers a question no one is asking, namely “Will legislation under the X case lead to abortion on demand under Irish law?”
Many European countries, according to Dr Conroy, have restrictive abortion regimes. But she does not ask or answer the question of whether the abortion rate in Ireland would go up, nor does she provide comparative rates of abortion in the various countries she discusses. It is possible to have a restrictive law on the books, but still to have widespread abortion in practise.
Based on the women in the UK who give Irish addresses, Irish women have a markedly low rate of abortion compared to most other European women. Widening in any way the legal availability here would, according to the same European experience Dr Conroy cites, lead to much higher numbers of Irish pregnant women aborting. – Yours, etc,