Sir, – I was delighted to see the article written by Diarmaid Ferriter "The Pro Life Campaign's definition of love is cruel" (Opinion & Analysis, April 21st). Last week I was delivering Together For Yes leaflets into houses with my four-year-old son, who came along with me to be a "postman" for an hour and hopefully pet a few dogs along the way. In Skerries, a pro-life woman who saw the leaflets in hand stopped down low beside him and said, "Aren't you lucky you weren't aborted!" He is four years old! How can this side claim to have any compassion? Love both? – Yours, etc,
NICOLA GRANT,
Rush, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Your latest opinion poll on the upcoming referendum raises some interesting issues ("Clear shift in attitude to abortion since 2013", News, April 20th).
There are references to the “right to choose” but no mention of the “right to life”. People naturally do not want to deprive other people of rights, but they were not given a real or explicit chance to reject the removal of the most fundamental right to life from the Constitution, without which the right to choice is irrelevant.
Further, another poll question describes the proposal offering abortion up to 12 weeks gestation as “reasonable compromise”, further nudging respondents, and not too subtly, towards the repeal side.
Interestingly a separate questions elicits the result that 41 per cent of respondents think the 12-week proposal “goes too far”, while 41 per cent think it does not. That shows how tight the result is likely to be.
Mind you, if you choose to agree that the 12-week proposal goes too far, then you are also signed up to the notion that “the law needs to be changed” because that’s all in one question.
In another question, people are asked if they “feel” (why not “think”?) that abortion is wrong and “should not be made more widely available”. Some 40 per cent agree while 47 per cent disagree, again suggesting a tighter vote than the headline figures which features on your front page with the reassurance (for whom?) that the Repeal side is “well ahead”. I would not be so sure. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN O’REGAN,
Arklow, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – You report that Nell McCafferty makes some telling admissions about the reality of abortion (News, April 23rd). She says that, "The pro-lifers are right that allowing terminations at the 12-week stage of pregnancy means the dismembering of babies in the womb". She further admits that she could not answer the question of whether the baby in the womb is a human being, stating, "But it's not that I'm unable – I'm unwilling to face some of the facts about abortion".
I agree with her on these points, and being willing to face all the facts about abortion, I am compelled to vote No. – Yours, etc,
COLM FITZPATRICK,
Castleknock, Dublin 15.