Madam, - Mary Raftery (Opinion, August 14th) refers to the withdrawal of two sex education booklets by the North-Eastern Health Board "following a direct attack by John Bruton".
If she had done a little more research, she would have found that the booklets, produced by the Irish Family Planning Association and funded by the NEHB, were withdrawn because of the antagonistic reaction of many people in Louth and Meath who had heard about their contents.
There was a spate of phone calls to the NEHB and LMFM radio station after some of the less savoury contents and stark omissions of the booklets were pointed out during an interview (of which I was part) on LMFM on the morning of their proposed launch. The radio station also received calls from people who were appalled by some of the comments of my fellow interviewee Catherine Heaney, chairperson of the IFPA.
Asked by the interviewer, Paul Maguire, if the additional information about the age of consent should not have been included in the booklets, she replied, "No."
Asked if she would support teenage sex, under the age of consent, Ms Heaney answered: "If that sex is totally informed sex, if that sex is a good choice for somebody, then that is something we would support."
The interviewer concluded the programme saying, "I am amazed that the IFPA would condone under-age sex, considering that sex with a girl under the age of 17 constitutes statutory rape." The NEHB halted the launch of these booklets within an hour.
These excepts were also printed in the Dundalk Democrat and discussed on LMFM again the next day. Both John Bruton TD and the Catholic Secondary Parents' Association called for the booklets to be withdrawn completely. Jim Masterson, president of the National VEC and Community Colleges Parents' Association, demanded that the IFPA booklets be withdrawn indefinitely.
Given the large public reaction, it seems that John Bruton and Catholic parents' organisations have substantial support in their stated opposition to these booklets. If Mary Raftery had not taken one contribution out of context, she should have known this too. - Yours, etc.,
HERMANN KELLY,
Dublin Road,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.
Madam, - Mary Raftery's excellent article on sex education and the Irish Family Planning Association booklets (Opinion, August 14th) threw some necessary light on the murky area of teenage sex and the criminal law.
I have read the IFPA booklets about which John Bruton has become so agitated. They are designed as sex education guides, and provide clear, practical and non-judgmental information for young people about sex. They are not designed to offer definitive information on the criminal law in this area - which is just as well, since it is complex and cumbersome, based on a number of different pieces of legislation, with girls and boys treated differently as far as the age of consent is concerned.
Whatever the intricacies of the criminal law, young adults and teenagers need information on the intricacies of sex. It is commendable that health boards are working with family planning service providers to improve the quality of that information. John Bruton's attack on this initiative is misguided. - Yours, etc.,
IVANA BACIK,
Law School,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.